Proteomics is the study and analysis of proteins under a specific set of conditions.
A proteome is the set of proteins that a biological entity possesses at a given time. The proteome is not a constant value – it changes over time and differs on the cellular level. Proteomics as a discipline is used to identify and investigate proteins present in an organ, a tissue, blood, an organism, a biological system, etc.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the word “proteomics” was coined by Australian scientist Marc Wilkins in 1995. While it provides a better understanding of a biological system than genomics (the study of whole genomes), it is also more complex since protein expression does not remain constant.
Proteomics is an emerging field of study. Scientists study proteins in a number of ways. Commonly, they use fractionation to separate protein/peptide mixtures, mass spectrometry to acquire data to identify individual proteins, and bioinformatics to analyse and assemble this data.
Need for proteomics
Just like genomics and transcriptomics (study of RNA transcripts) revolutionised biology and the study of evolution, scientists consider proteomics to be the next big step in biology research.
Proteomics has applications in medicine and food microbiology, among others. In drug discovery, proteomics is useful to understand the functions of proteins and how they react.
The application of proteomics in oncology is called oncoproteomics. It is used to identify drugs that can potentially beat cancer and/or to provide personalised care and cancer management to patients. Proteomic techniques can also be used to detect cancer biomarkers and thus facilitate early detection and treatment.
Researchers also use proteomics to study proteins found in bones and other remnants of ancient humans, thus providing a better understanding of human evolution over time.
Additionally, proteomics can shed more light on the behaviour of proteins, including their production, modification and degradation, their interaction with one another, etc.
What is the need for advancements in single-cell proteomics?
Subpopulations in certain biological systems, such as diseased tissue, can be isolated and analysed in bulk. But certain systems don’t allow this due to certain characteristic discrete phenotypic states (the observable effects of genes) or unknown cell states or markers, an article published in Nature on March 2, 2023 notes.
Single-cell proteomics, a further advancement in the field, can help researchers discover new cell types, and analysing a large number of single cells allows for data-driven analysis of joint distributions of protein abundances.
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