Bioinformatics for Proteomics

proteomics
course
identification
quantification
data-sharing
searchgui
peptideshaker
The original hands-on CompOmics course on mass spectrometry-based proteomics data analysis: identification, functional analysis, data sharing, and quantification. Slides and exercise resources included. A modernised version is in preparation.
Published

June 1, 2026

The classic Bioinformatics for Proteomics course: a hands-on walk through a full mass spectrometry data-analysis pipeline, from a raw spectrum file to a shared, quantified result. Work through the four modules in order, or jump to the step you need.

Archived materials. This page preserves the original course. Some tools, formats, and versions reflect the field as it was when the course was written and are now partly outdated (for example, PRIDE XML has been superseded by mzIdentML and mzTab). A modernised version is in preparation.

Shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Please cite Vaudel et al. (2014).

1
Module

Identification

The full path from a raw file to validated peptides and proteins: format conversion, spectrum processing, database preparation, peptide-spectrum matching, inference, validation, PTM analysis, and de novo sequencing.

  1. 1.1

    Database generation

  2. 1.2

    Peak list generation

  3. 1.3

    Peptide to spectrum matching

  4. 1.4

    Browsing identification results

  5. 1.5

    Peptide and protein validation

  6. 1.6
  7. 1.7

    De novo peptide identification

2
Module

Functional analysis

Turning an identification list into biology: retrieving protein information, pathway analysis, 3D structure visualisation, and Gene Ontology annotation.

3
Module

Data sharing

Submitting and reusing data through community repositories: converting results to standard formats, submitting to PRIDE and ProteomeXchange, browsing published datasets, and reprocessing.

These course notes use PRIDE XML, now deprecated. Current submissions use mzIdentML and mzTab; the submission workflow through PRIDE and ProteomeXchange is otherwise unchanged.

  1. 3.0

    Introduction

  2. 3.1
  3. 3.2
  4. 3.3

    Reprocess

4
Module

Quantification

Estimating protein abundance across several orders of magnitude, covering the main quantification strategies and their trade-offs.

  1. 4.0

    Introduction

  2. 4.1

    Spectrum counting

  3. 4.2
  4. 4.5

    Statistical analysis