Feature extraction in the analysis of proteomic mass spectra

Feature extraction or biomarker selection is a critical step in disease diagnosis and knowledge discovery based on protein MS. Many studies have discussed the classification methods applied in proteomics; however, few could be found to address feature extraction in detail. In this paper, we developed a systematic approach for the extraction of mass spectrum peak apex and peak area with special emphasis on noise filtration and peak calibration. Application to a head and neck cancer data generated at the Eastern Virginia Medical School [Wadsworth, J. T., Somers, K. D., Cazares, L. H., Malik, G. et al.., Clin. Cancer Res. 2004, 10, 1625-1632] revealed that the new feature extraction method would yield consistent and highly discriminatory biomarkers.