Thermo Fisher Scientific and Matrix Science Announce an Integrated Solution for Superior Protein Identification

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced the integration of Matrix Science’s Mascot™ search engine for protein identification with its BioWorks™ software. The SEQUEST^® search algorithm from the University of Washington, (a component of BioWorks software) and Mascot are the two most widely accepted search engines in the field for protein identification and PTM characterization.

This integration will enable users to consolidate identification results from the two search engines and cross-validate the results, taking advantage of the complementary information provided by each. Studies have shown that different search engines match different spectra, resulting in a large overlap and some unique protein identifications for each. Including both search engines in the same software platform provides a new level of confidence in protein identification. The new integration of SEQUEST and Mascot within the Thermo Scientific BioWorks platform enables the kind of flexibility in mass spectrometry data interrogation that customers are looking for.

John Cottrell of Matrix Science stated, “We are delighted that Thermo Fisher Scientific will enable its customers to purchase Mascot as part of a complete instrument and software platform”. In addition, Andreas Hühmer, proteomics marketing director at Thermo Fisher Scientific said, “It’s all about flexibility for our customers – we want to give customers who have already chosen superior instrumentation the choice to analyze their data with the search engine they prefer, or to increase their protein coverage by combining the results from both.” Integration of Mascot provides users with comprehensive tools for data processing, protein identification, quantitation and characterization.