Processing Metabolomics and Proteomics Data with Open Software

Book excerpt: Metabolomics and proteomics allow deep insights into the chemistry and physiology of biological systems. This book expounds open-source programs, platforms and programming tools for analysing metabolomics and proteomics mass spectrometry data. In contrast to commercial software, open-source software is created by the academic community, which facilitates the direct interaction between users and developers and accelerates the implementation of new concepts and ideas. The first section of the book covers the basics of mass spectrometry, experimental strategies, data operations, the open-source philosophy, metabolomics, proteomics and statistics/ data mining. In the second section, active programmers and users describe available software packages. Included tutorials, datasets and code examples can be used for training and for building custom workflows. Finally, every reader is invited to participate in the open science movement.