PNNL

Abstract

Background: There has been considerable recent interest in proteomic analyses of serum or plasma for the purposes of biomarker discovery and disease diagnostics. To date, most such analyses have focused on simple identification and annotation of the plasma proteome due to its enormous complexity. While this growing body of proteomic data defines the currently accessible plasma proteome, it can also be used to determine so-called proteotypic peptides that have been observed or likely to be observed using mass spectrometry. Such proteotypic peptides have tremendous potential value since they could be targeted to effectively screen the known plasma proteins for either global or specific alterations associated with specific biological processes or physiological conditions.