Computational Approaches for Characterizing Non-canonical Tandem Mass Spectra

Extensive research has been conducted for the computational analysis of mass spectrometry based proteomics data, however most of the traditional computational approaches take the assumption that the acquired spectra are generated from the fragmentation of a single precursor and the peptide is simply a linear sequence of amino acid residues. This ubiquitous assumption is impeding the utility of those computational approaches, especially when handling those non-canonical tandem mass spectra. In this project, we aim to develop new computational approaches for the interpretation of two types of non-canonical mass spectra, the mixture tandem mass spectra coming from the concurrent fragmentation of multiple precursors in one sequencing attempt, and the tandem mass spectra resulting from the sequencing of disulfide linkage structures. The software tools or integrated software modules developed in this project will potentially enhance the applications of the software packages and expand the commercial services provided by the partnering company.

Faculty Supervisor:

Kaizhong Zhang

Student:

Yi Liu

Partner:

Western University

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Western University