The purpose of the preface is to explain the book's objectives and how to use it; give warnings, disclaimers, and the like.* The main objective of Protein and Peptide Analysis by Mass Spec trometry is quite straightforwardto present authoritative, up-to-date, and practical accounts of the use of mass spectrometry in the analysis of pep tides and proteins. How to use it? Every reader will have their own particular interests and will surely be drawn toward the chapters that cover these interests. Within the remaining chapters, however, techniques are described with analytical possibilities that such a reader can then only guess at. So, read the book fully. Again, as is customary in the Methods in Molecular Biology series, the chapter format (Introduction, Materials, Methods, and Notes) allows the authors to introduce the techniques, to explain their relevance and applicability, and, above all, to provide detaildetail that represents each author's accumulated experience and enables the reader to use and benefit from these methods. So, read the book fully, and read it diligently. Warnings and disclaimers: Mass spectrometry today offers the pro tein chemist ready access to a wealth of information that is otherwise avail able only with great difficulty, or perhaps not at all. With this goal in sight, any warnings and disclaimers will almost surely be ignored. So, a warning anyway; the use of mass spectrometry might be habit forming.

Zusammenfassung
The 21 Chapters cover the whole range of techniques, with enough detail about the physical and technical background to satisfy and enable the critical user without swamping him or her; all illustrated with a wide range of cutting-edge applications...The book closes with a valuable series of appendices (acronyms, mass and abundance values, fragmentation patterns etc)...there is no lightweight material or padding in this important and timely book-The European Peptide Society Newsletter

"...useful to newcomers." - SGM Quarterly

Inhalt
Mass Spectrometry in the Analysis of Peptides and Proteins, Past and Present.- Mass Spectrometry.- Charged Derivatives for Peptide Sequencing Using a Magnetic Sector Instrument.- New Instrumental Approaches to Collision-Induced Dissociation Using a Time-of-Flight Instrument.- Mass Spectrometric Quantification of Neuropeptides.- The Identification of Electrophoretically Separated Proteins by Peptide Mass Fingerprinting.- Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Protein Digests.- Structural Analysis of Protein Variants.- Noncovalent Interactions Observed Using Electrospray Ionization.- Protein Secondary Structure Investigated by Electrospray Ionization.- The Effect of Detergents on Proteins Analyzed by Electrospray Ionization.- Posttranslational Modifications Analyzed by Automated Protein Ladder Sequencing.- Rapid Analysis of Single-Cysteine Variants of Recombinant Proteins.- Disulfide Bond Location in Proteins.- Determination of Loading Values and Distributions for Drugs Conjugated to Proteins and Antibodies by MALDI-MS and ESI-MS.- Hydrophobic Proteins and Peptides Analyzed by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization.- Analysis of Glycoproteins and Glycopeptides Using Fast-Atom Bombardment.- Identification of Cleaved Oligosaccharides by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization.- Structural Characterization of Protein Glycosylation Using HPLC/Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry and Glycosidase Digestion.- Analysis of Complex Protein and Glycoprotein Mixtures by Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry with Maximum Entropy Processing.- The Use of Databases in Searching the Literature of Biological Mass Spectrometry.