QALM - a tool for automating quantitative analysis of LC-MS-MS/MS data

Abstract

The goal of bioinformatics is to support science and research in the field of biology through the application of information technology. Proteomics is a field within biology that deals with the study of proteins. This paper describes QALM, an application developed to automate and simplify a specific type of proteomics analysis. QALM is first and foremost a proof of concept through which certain options for implementing such automation have been explored. Although a functional and usable application has been created, this should primarily be considered a stepping stone for similar applications in the future. Currently QALM is a desktop tool for importing and exporting data, inte- grating and communicating with external systems for the analysis of such data, and finally generating reports to present the results. It currently runs only un- der the Linux operating system, but it should be possible to change this fairly easily.