Our Discovery Tools are open access and are available to all!
About our Discovery Tools:
NeuroPred
NeuroPred is a web-based application that integrates models and repositories to accurately predict prohormone cleavage sites and annotate the resulting peptides in human and a number of biomedical species. NeuroPred provides the research community with the most likely set of resulting peptides, including sequence, mass and post-translational modifications.
PepShop
PepShop is a web-based application to facilitate annotation and identification of neuropeptides and prohormones across multiple species. In addition to a searchable database of prohormones, PepShop provides bioinformatics tools for homology searches, multiple sequence alignment and cleavage prediction sites, and proteomic tools for searches for neuropeptides and fragment ion prediction.
microMS
microMS, for microscopy-guided mass spectrometry, is written in Python and provides an intuitive graphical user interface to simplify image-guided MS for novice users. The class hierarchy of instrument interactions was designed to easily integrate new MS systems while retaining the feature-rich image analysis framework. microMS provides a versatile platform for researchers to perform targeted profiling experiments using a series of mass spectrometers. The flexibility in mass analyzers greatly simplifies serial analysis of the same targets by different instruments.
neuroProSight
NeuroProSight allows identification and characterization of intact proteins and their post- translational modifications (PTMs) using the Top-Down Approach. This online toolset is managed by the Northwestern team.
ProSight Lite
ProSight Lite is a free Windows application for matching a single candidate protein sequence and its modifications against a set of mass spectrometric observations. This tool is managed by the Northwestern team.
Sequence Gazer™
SequenceGazer is used to characterize intact proteins, neuropeptides, and their post- translational modifications (PTMs). The site has many tools and graphical features to facilitate analysis of single proteins. This online toolset is managed by the Northwestern team.
Mouse Brain Proteoform Atlas
The Mouse Brain Proteoform Atlas is a tool that is used to catalog all proteoforms observed during top-down proteomics experiments in murine brain tissue. This online database is managed by the Northwestern team.
TD Portal/TD Viewer
TDPortal is a high-throughput top-down proteomics engine running on the Northwestern Quest High Performance Computing cluster. This portal runs on the Galaxy framework and provides access to multithreaded top-down proteomics data analysis. Results from the TDPortal are viewable using the TDViewer, a Windows application created under the Windows Presentation Foundation framework. This visual tool allows users to profile proteins identified and proteoforms characterized within a top-down proteomics experiment. This online toolset is managed by the Northwestern team.
ProSight Annotator
ProSight Annotator is a free Windows application allowing researchers to enhance their targeted proteoform searches using the Center’s Discovery Tools. Users add novel specific features to existing public data such as PTMs, glycans, disulfide bonds, or endogenous cleavages that researchers have identified. This new information is then used by other Center Discovery Tools to discover novel proteoforms from their top-down data. This online toolset is managed by the Northwestern team.
Stretched Imaging
This is a set of computational tools to use when employing the stretched imaging method developed by members of the Sweedler group.
Songbird Neuroanatomy Webpages
The images on the Songbird Neuroanatomy webpages show the expression distribution of 15 prohormone genes across sections from an adult male zebra finch brain. You will find links for viewing brain sections stained for each of these genes and the option to view all sections from one brain with some neuroanatomical annotation (“Whole brain”).
Protocols
The protocols presented here have been developed and published by the Center so that all in the research community may benefit from these discovery toolsets.