Label-Free Mass Spectrometry-Based Protein Quantification Technologies in Protein Biomarker Discovery

Major technological advances have made proteomics an extremely active field for biomarker discovery in recent years due primarily to the development of newer mass spectrometric technologies and the explosion in genomic and protein bioinformatics. This leads to an increased emphasis on larger scale, faster, and more efficient methods for detecting protein biomarkers in human tissues, cells, and biofluids. Most current proteomic methodologies for biomarker discovery, however, are not highly automated and are generally labor-intensive and expensive. More automation and improved software programs capable of handling a large amount of data are essential in order to reduce the cost of discovery and increase the throughput. In this chapter, we will discuss and describe a case study of a unique proteomic method that uses a non-gel, label-free LC/MS-based protein quantification technology.