Protein Mass Spectrometry: Novel Approaches in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Protein mass spectrometry refers to the application of mass spectrometry to study the proteins and nowadays it is introduced in proteomies science as well as pharmaceutical biotechnology. Mass spectrometry is an important emerging method for ionization of whole proteins are electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). In keeping with the performance and mass range of available mass spectrometers, two approaches are used for characterizing proteins. In the first, intact proteins are ionized by either of the two techniques described above, and then introduced to a mass analyzer. This approach is referred to as “top-down” strategy of protein analysis. In the second, proteins are enzymatically digested into smaller peptides using a protease such as trypsin. Subsequently these peptides are introduced into the mass spectrometer and identified by peptide mass fingerprinting or tandem mass spectrometry. Hence this latter approach (also called “bottom up” proteomies) uses identification at the peptide level to infere the existence of proteins.