Quantitation with chemical tagging reagents in biomarker studies

Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ), Tandem Mass Tags (TMT) and related chemical tag reagents provide analytical platforms for quantitative proteomics applied to clinical samples. In this Viewpoint article, applications for discovery and targeted modes are discussed with an emphasis on study design and technical considerations in biomarker analysis. The evolution and promise of emerging, related strategies are also discussed. It should be noted that iTRAQ and TMT users contributed to the key debates in the biomarker field, to define strategies for biomarker discovery for identification of clinical biomarkers, and continue to inform design of verification and validation assays via implementation of non-isobaric variants for targeted analyses.