Mass spectrometry has married statistics: uncle is functionality, children are selectivity and sensitivity

Techniques for analyzing tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) data are moving from empirically determined heuristics to standard statistical methods. OLAV, an advanced database search engine, applies statistical models to capture essential structural properties of correct peptide identifications. Moreover, as exemplified by OLAV, it is important to have extended functionalities in MS/MS search engines both to exploit database annotations and to carry out advanced search strategies.