New Proteomic Analysis Software Offers Unified Solution

BIOINQUIRE, LLC announced the release of ProteoIQ, a new software suite for analyzing proteomic data that frees the researcher from the tedious task of sifting through piles of data, and allows him or her to do what they do best – research.

Proteomics, the study of proteins and how they are expressed, can generate gigabytes of data hourly, producing tens to hundreds of hours of hand-indexing and cataloguing per sample. ProteoIQ offers a unified software solution that supports the entire proteomic data analysis pipeline, including data organization, statistical validation, protein quantification, and publication/collaboration.

“Obtaining proteomic data is easy,” said Ron Orlando, co-founder of BIOINQUIRE and researcher at the University of Georgia, who uses mass spectrometry for the analysis of proteins and glycoproteins. “Data handling had become a major bottleneck, and most of my staff was sifting through data, instead of running experiments.”

“The big idea behind ProteoIQ was to convert lists of protein identifications into a format that is easily understood and interpreted by biologists in a few mouse clicks,” said D. Brent Weatherly, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of BIOINQUIRE.

ProteoIQ is particularly well-suited for comparative proteomic analyses, where spectral counting-based quantification is combined with data mining functions to enable researchers to find differences between multiple proteomic data sets. The software generates statistically validated protein sets, which can then be compared. Proteins that are different across multiple proteomes can be easily identified using the difference function. Taking the intersection of two proteomes allows the researcher to obtain expression levels of those proteins in common.

ProteoIQ incorporates proprietary Protein Validation Technology (ProValT) algorithms licensed from the University of Georgia Research Foundation. This technology, which allows researchers to assign a level of significance to their protein datasets, has already been validated in over 30 published studies.

Initial reviews of ProteoIQ have been very strong. Chemist Robert Graham of University of Ulster said, “The new software (ProteoIQ) is fantastic, really useful and impressive; the use of spectral counting, ability to do intersection, and the linking of proteins to databases is brilliant.” Cancer researcher Lance Wells of the University of Georgia, an early adoptee of ProteoIQ, said, "With its flexibility and functionality, ProteoIQ easily outperforms the competing software."