Protein quantification by LC–MS: a decade of progress on the pages of Bioanalysis

Over the past 10 years, there has been a remarkable increase in the use of LC–MS for the quantitative determination of proteins, and this technique can now be considered an established bioanalytical platform for the quantification of macromolecular drugs and biomarkers, next to the traditional ligand-binding assays. Many researchers have contributed to the field and helped improve both the technical possibilities of LC–MS-based workflows and our understanding of the meaning of the results that are obtained. As a tribute to Bioanalysis, which has published many important contributions, this report gives a high-level overview of the most important trends in the field of protein LC–MS, as published in this journal since its inauguration a decade ago. It describes the major technical developments with regard to sample handling, separation and MS detection of both digested and intact protein analysis. In addition, the relevance of the complex structure and in vivo behavior of proteins is discussed and the effe...