Proteomics uses mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography to analyze protein content and discover biomarkers for diseases like cancer. Mass spectrometry extracts proteomes from samples, separates molecules by polarity, and identifies thousands of proteins. However, mass spectrometry alone is inefficient for biomarker discovery as it only detects all proteins present without identifying clinically relevant proteins or providing quantitative accuracy. Improving techniques to more precisely identify disease-specific proteins could enable early detection and treatment of various illnesses.

1. Nicole Colón
Seminar Reflections:
According to Josip Blonder et al. (2011) in their article “Proteomics biomarker discovery: It’s more
than just mass spectrometry” the study of protein can be very useful on the detection of biomarkers.
Proteomics study the protein content in cell tissue and organisms. This area is very powerful in the
discovery of biomarkers, which are used to detect specific-diseases, such as cancer. For the discovery of
these biomarkers Mass spectrometry combined with liquid chromatography is used. Mass spectrometry is
used to analyze the proteins of the samples by extracting the proteomes and digesting them into tryptic
peptides. Cation exchange is performed and the molecules are separated based on their polarity. Finally
the peptides are placed in the mass spectrometer; the speed used in the mass spectrometer allows thousand
of proteins to be identified. Those results are put on what they called a “validation process”, in which
proteins are identified as “possible biomarkers”.
Using only Mass spectrometry during the detection of protein biomarkers had been proved to be
inefficient, and had stated to face many problems and difficulties. Blonder et al. (2011) stated that this
process only allow a certain amounts of proteins to be measure, it’s also lack of quantitative accuracy and
it’s does not identify a relevant protein, its only identify all the proteins present on these tissue. “While
MS technology will continue to advance and its use in the biological sciences will continue to grow,
enthusiasm for discovering disease-specific biomarkers using MS has started to wane. Trying to find
clinically useful biomarkers analyses of biofluids and tissues has proven to be challenging and very
inefficient”. Mass spectrometry focus on the detection of all proteins that are found in the specific tissue
that is being studied, it does not indicate the protein for the disease that is being studied, that’s why they
are called “possible biomarkers”. This article can be used to encourage scientist to find a way to improve
this techniques, used to identify proteins. This could be very useful not only to detect specific proteins but
also to identify several diseases and give early treatments.