Time has come to say goodbye to Western Blot ?
Western blot , a classic method used in almost every lab around the world to detect specific proteins in a given sample of tissue homogenate or extract.But it may not be the case in near future and time might have come to bid fare well to this age old classic.According to Matthias Mann,who has written a commentary in The Journal of Proteome Research dealing with the issue of Western blot and latest techniques available in proteomics.
Despite its obvious success and convenience, problems exist with this approach one being semi- quantitative at best and A more fundamental limitation of this method lies in its targeted nature: using antibody detection, biologists can find only what they look for.Unexpected effects in different cellular compartments than the one studied or in different cellular processes go undiscovered.
Matthias believe that Proteomics could solve this problem using high-resolution mass spectrometers (MS) which cover most cellular proteins in a quantitative experiment.The other advantage with MS is that it detects the proteins which are normally detected by westerns but in quantitative instead of largely qualitative manner.Finally he stress on the incorporation of Proteomics in education of biologists ,so that it could turn into a truly powerful technique giving the big picture of proceeding in the cell.
Reference :
Matthias Mann
Can Proteomics Retire the Western Blot?
J. Proteome Res., 7 (8), 3065, 2008. 10.1021/pr800463v
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