The Book Corner

Industrial Proteomics, Applications for Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals is as the editor states “is a focused treatment of industrial applications of proteomics. Proteomics in industry is generally focused on application in target discovery and pharmaceutical pipelines, thereby requiring proteomic processes that are robust, well characterized, under quality control (QC) and producing statistically significant results. It also requires the capacity to handle significant amounts of samples. For example, a simple clinical proteomic study might require an analysis by expression proteomics from a minimum of 36 to hundreds of complex samples.” This book contains 11 chapters, each of which addresses specific aspects of industrial application of proteomics. The first chapter covers the basics of mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics. Functional proteomics is covered in Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 2 discusses the MS-based approaches of mapping protein interactions. Chapter 3 discusses the protein posttranslational modifications, particularly, protein phosphorylations. Structural proteomics is covered in Chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 covers the use of high-throughput crystallography and in silico methods for structure-based drug design. Chapter 5 describes the use of hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry for high-throughput protein structure studies. The first applications of proteomics were in target discovery. Chapter 6, a discussion of the utilization of proteomics technologies for the identification as well as the validation of protein targets is given. The latest application of proteomics has been for the discovery of disease or drug-related biomarkers. Chapter 7 provides an overview of biomarker discovery and validation while Chapter 8 details plasma biomarker discovery using proteomics. Proteomics can also be approached from the small-molecule worked (i.e., drugs), particularly, to find proteins that interact with drugs. Chapter 9 presents chemical genomics/chemical proteomics and discusses the different approaches. Journal of Immunoassay & Immunochemistry, 26: 357–364, 2005 Copyright # Taylor & Francis, Inc. ISSN 1532-1819 print/1532-4230 online DOI: 10.1080/15321810500220993