Bioinformatics tools for differential analysis of proteomic expression profiling data from clinical samples

With recent advances in technologies for high-throughput genomic and proteomic expression analysis, the simultaneous measurement of expression levels of a large number of molecular entities or so-called profiling has become an important screening tool for the discovery of new biomarkers that are associated with a particular disease process. In addition to the potential for direct clinical applications, such as for early detection and diagnosis of diseases and use as therapeutic targets, results from such “target-hunting” activities also facilitate the generation of hypotheses that may lead to new discoveries that help us to better understand the disease process itself.