Many problems in disease remediation, cell biology, evolution,
and genetics require complete knowledge of the sequence of amino
acids which constitute a particular protein. Existing methods
of sequencing such as Edman degradations require significant amounts
of protein material and long periods of time. Using capillary
high performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) and tandem mass
spectrometry (MS/MS), researchers have demonstrated the ability
to analyze femtomole quantities of a single protein. It is not
yet possible to reliably reconstruct the protein sequence from
a mass spectrum, even though these analyses have allowed recognition
of known proteins by their mass spectral fingerprints.
In past research funded by the NIH, Daniel H. Wagner Associates
worked on a probability-model-based reconstruction algorithm to
rapidly and accurately determine (de novo) the amino acid
sequence in a polypeptide using HPLC MS/MS technology.
