The Importance and Challenges for Analytical Chemistry in Proteomics Analysis

Abstract

Although Linus Pauling had an exceptional scientific contribution to the study of chemical bonds, reported in his book The Nature of Chemical Bond, the lousy image he got for the X-ray diffraction drove him to an unstable structure with an unreal DNA triple helix publication. Oppositely, for the consecration of James Watson & Francis Crick, they had the opportunity to enter science history using the right image of X-ray to propose the famous DNA double helix structure correctly. This chapter of science is an excellent example of how analytical chemistry performance affects horizons and scientific advances. Today the complexity of the systems is more significant and understanding how all proteins truly work into cells and organisms is the current challenge from proteomics. Comprehending how analysis is carried out and how instruments work could promote new insights to improve the analytical performance in proteomics. Here we described an overview based on our expertise on the analytical chemistry toolkit for proteomics analysis: shotgun, bottom-up, middle-down, top-down, and native proteomics, and their inherent instrumentation technologies. In addition, a detailed discussion of the analytical figures of merit in proteomics analysis is provided. We also address the limitations in multidimensional liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry platforms. Furthermore, we present some perspectives in bioinformatics, mathematical modeling simulations, and chemometrics tools, as well.