Key challenges in proteomics and proteoinformatics

In this article, a survey on experimental and computational approaches related to proteomics is presented. Considered broadly, proteomics includes: techniques for identifying proteins in a sample, detecting posttranslational modifications (changes to proteins after translation), predicting the structure and function of proteins from sequence data, and integrating information about protein sequences from different databases. The paper focuses on the ways in which recent biological findings complicate the mapping from genes to RNA to protein. The authors argue that the challenges encountered in proteomics provide a valuable lesson on the complexity of life itself, as live organisms always contradict oversimplified models of biological information flow. In this overview, a snapshot of contemporary issues in proteomics is shown.