Proteomics

the large-scale study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions

Description
Proteins are vital in living organisms, as they are the main components of the physiological pathways of cells. The term "proteomics" was coined to make an analogy with genomics, the genome-wide study of the genes. The word "proteome" derives from "proteins" and "genome", since the genome encodes proteins. The proteome of an organism is the set of proteins produced at any one time, and its genome is its set of genes. The proteome of a cell under a particular stimulation is the set of proteins in it. Of late, proteomics is also being employed to characterize blood and blood components, and is increasingly accessible also to institutions with limited budgets.