In 1990 first mass spectrometrs dedicated to protein and peptide analysis came to the market. Among these were the BIOION20, the LaserMAT2000, and the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer SCIEX API3 and Finnigan TSQ70 for LC-MS, not for LC-MS/MS. Working with some of these early instruments, the knowledge of basic proteinand peptide analysis by mass spectrometry was obtained. The real push into biological mass spectrometry came from the invention of the static nanospray, allowing the identification of proteins from biological samples. This was together with the establishment of protein databases and the search routines to identify the proteins.
With the development of autometic LC-MS/MS in the late 1990's, the basics for the today workflow were established. But todays work cannot be done without the basic developments.
Proteomics.Asia has over 30 years experience in protein and peptide analysis and over 20 years in biological mass spectrometry. The experience covers the setup of three protein/peptide and Proteomics' labs in the last 22 years and the knowledge of all techniques related to these fields.
In the last years, the focus has shifted strongly from mass spectrometry alone to sample preparation techniques and data analysis and interpretation. While state-of-the-art instruments allow the in-depth analysis of complex samples, the bottlenecks are still the reliable sample preparation and the interpretation of the data and the step to get meaningful information out of the data.