CHAPTER 4. Proteomics

Abstract

Proteins are the major functional unit that dictates the structure and function of a cell, tissue or organism. The term proteome refers to the pool of proteins coded by the whole genome. Significant efforts towards deciphering the secrets of the human genome in the next-generation genomics era, with high-throughput technologies, failed to provide functional relevance, as gene expressions do not necessarily correlate with protein expression. Therefore, proteomics has emerged as an independent stream of biological research for the large-scale comprehensive systematic study of the proteome of a given cell, organism or condition. Mass spectrometry has proven to be central to proteomics-based stu..