Metriculator: quality assessment for mass spectrometry-based proteomics

Bioinformatics. 2013 Nov 15;29(22):2948-9. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btt510. Epub 2013 Sep 2.

Abstract

Summary: Quality control in mass spectrometry-based proteomics remains subjective, labor-intensive and inconsistent between laboratories. We introduce Metriculator, a software designed to facilitate long-term storage of extensive performance metrics as introduced by NIST in 2010. Metriculator features a web interface that generates interactive comparison plots for contextual understanding of metric values and an automated metric generation toolkit. The comparison plots are designed for at-a-glance determination of outliers and trends in the datasets, together with relevant statistical comparisons. Easy-to-use quantitative comparisons and a framework for integration plugins will encourage a culture of quality assurance within the proteomics community.

Availability and implementation: Available under the MIT license at http://github.com/princelab/metriculator.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Internet
  • Mass Spectrometry / standards*
  • Proteomics / standards*
  • Quality Control
  • Software*