Proteomic approaches in the search for disease biomarkers

Significant technological advances in protein chemistry, physics and computer sciences in the last two decades have greatly improved protein separation methodologies, such as electrophoresis and chromatography. and have established mass spectrometry (MS) as an indispensable tool for protein study. The goal of this review is to provide a brief overview of the recent improvements in these methodologies and present examples from their application in proteome analysis and search for disease biomarkers. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.