Proteomics and metabolomics focus on complex interactions within biological systems; the former is centered on proteins while the latter is based on metabolites. To understand these interactions, we need to accurately identify the different biological components involved.
{term}Liquid chromatography (LC) and {term}mass spectrometry (MS) are the analytical techniques used to isolate and identify biological components in proteomics and metabolomics. LC-MS data can be difficult to analyze manually given its amount and complexity. Therefore, we need specialized software that can analyze high-throughput LC-MS data quickly and accurately.
Why use OpenMS
OpenMS is an open-source, C++ framework for analyzing large volumes of mass spectrometry data. It has been specially designed for analyzing high performance LC-MS data but over recent times, has been extended to analyze data generated by other techniques.
OpenMS in recent times has been expanded to support a wide variety of mass spectrometry experiments. To design your analysis solution, [contact the OpenMS team](https://openms.de/communication/) today.
To use OpenMS effectively, an understanding of chromatography and mass spectrometry is required as many of the algorithms are based on these techniques. This section provides a detailed explanation on LC and MS, and how they are combined to identify and quantify substances.
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lc-chromatography.md
mass-spectrometry.md
id-and-quant.md