Cellzome's "proteotypic peptide" prediction system published

Boston, USA-based Cellzome says that its collaboration with the Institute of Systems Biology, in Seattle, and the University in California, in Los Angeles, has resulted in the production of software that allows the genome-wide prediction of proteotypic peptides. The firm says that the data and methodologies, which are the subject of an article entitled "Computational Prediction of Proteotypic Peptides for Quantitative Proteomics" published in this month's issue of Nature Biotechnology, can transform proteomics "from a discovery tool into a robust and quantitative biological science."

The company explained that traditional mass spectrometry-based protein identification requires that the molecule in question is cleaved in smaller fragments prior to identification. The group found that these proteotypic peptides are consistent for any given protein, and that they can be used to expedite quantitative protein identification based on predictions made against the DNA or protein sequence, rather than the protein in its native form.