Introduction to Proteomics

This is an introductory, single-authored introduction to proteomics, which is currently the hottest thing in the biological sciences as it enable scientists to study the protein complement of the genome. It refers to studying the functions of many proteins at one time, as opposed to how research was conducted in the mid-90's where the technology did not enable the study of the entire protein system. From this, one is able to develop a systematic overview of the way a genome functions and the role it plays in health and disease. Daniel C. Liebler masterfully introduces the science of proteomics by spelling out the basics of how one analyzes proteins and proteomes, and just how these approaches are then employed to investigate their roles in living systems. He explains the key concepts of proteomics, how the analytical instrumentation works, what data mining and other softeware tools do, and how these tools can be integrated to study proteomes. Also discussed are how protein and peptide separation techniques are applied in proteomics, how mass spectrometry is used to identify proteins, and how data analysis software enables protein identification and the mapping of modifications. In addition, there are proteomic approaches for analyzing differential protein expression, characterising proteomic diversity, and dissecting protein-protein interactions and networks.