Proteomics isn't new. It has just evolved.

In 1992, I ran a series of 2D gel electrophoresis experiments to identify proteins involved in the assembly of flagellar proteins. I did a co-immuno precipitation step with antibody conjugated beads, and then ran the captured proteins first on a self-made isoelectric focusing gel, and then cut a strip to lay over the top of a standard SDS PAGE gel followed by Ponceau S staining.

In 2001, the IEF portion was standardized with commercially available pre-made IEF strips covering different pH ranges. A series of tools provided users with the ability to enrich protein extracts via isoelectric focusing point (Rotofor, etc) or by molecular weight but the process was still largely manual, highly variable, and an art at best.

The trend toward LC/MS began in earnest ~ 2004. 2D gels transitioned to a more mass spec based approach and other technologies (i.e SELDI) began to offer a more streamlined approach to biomarker discovery. Single plex western blots gave way to multiplexes Western blots. Single plex ELISAa gave way to bead based and other multiplexed immuno assays. Immuno depletion of high abundance proteins became the norm, and then next gen sequencing blinded the masses and erased all memory of proteomics.

And then the next generation of proteomics began.

#Learnthehistory #Historydoesntbeginwithmeoryou #appreciatetheevolution #thefundamentalsneverchangeonlythenames