A Universal Language for Finding Mass Spectrometry Data Patterns

Abstract Even though raw mass spectrometry data is information rich, the vast majority of the data is underutilized. The ability to interrogate these rich datasets is handicapped by the limited capability and flexibility of existing software. We introduce the Mass Spec Query Language (MassQL) that addresses these issues by enabling an expressive set of mass spectrometry patterns to be queried directly from raw data. MassQL is an open-source mass spectrometry query language for flexible and mass spectrometer manufacturer-independent mining of MS data. We envision the flexibility, scalability, and ease of use of MassQL will empower the mass spectrometry community to take fuller advantage of their mass spectrometry data and accelerate discoveries.