Bioinformatics Approach for Exploring MS/MS Proteomics Data

The use of computer tools and technologies is unavoidable when it comes to conducting mass spectrometry (MS) research at any significant level. This is mainly due to the large volume of MS data and the processing rates required. Most of the existing tools focus on one particular task: be it storing and maintaining the data or visualizing the dataset to draw inferences from the data. But for the researcher the problem of manually retrieving a large dataset from a datasource and customizing it for a particular visualization application is a daunting task in itself. This paper describes the Computational Cell Environment (CCE) which is a problem-solving environment for systems biology that provides uniform and integrated access to distributed, heterogeneous biological data sources and analysis applications, through a multi-tiered architecture. This paper also illustrates the necessity for such a tool by discussing its usage in proteomics research being performed on the diseased and normal states of Deinococcus Radiodurans along with corresponding curated data collected from community resources.