The rapid deve­lop­ment of high accu­racy and high sen­si­ti­vity mass spec­tro­metry tech­no­lo­gies has revo­lu­tio­ni­zed our unders­tan­ding of pro­teins and their con­tri­bu­tion to cellu­lar func­tion. Howe­ver, there is an inc­rea­singly appa­rent dis­con­nect bet­ween these state-​​of-​​the-​​art tools and their effec­tive appli­ca­tions to advance car­dio­vas­cu­lar bio­logy and medi­cine. Des­pite pro­gress made in cer­tain areas of inves­ti­ga­tion, car­dio­vas­cu­lar pro­teo­mic research faces three major cha­llen­ges: the exces­sive cost of ins­tru­men­ta­tion; the limi­ted acces­si­bi­lity of advan­ced pro­teo­mic tech­no­logy to the car­dio­vas­cu­lar com­mu­nity at large; and the overwhel­ming quan­tity and frag­men­ted nature of mass spec­tra data­sets lac­king func­tio­nal anno­ta­tions. These eco­no­mic, tech­no­lo­gi­cal, and infor­ma­tic limi­ta­tions are prohi­bi­tive to further advan­ce­ment of the field.

To move the field for­ward, our inves­ti­ga­tor team iden­ti­fied seve­ral key cha­llen­ges that com­monly surround mass spec­tro­me­ter data pro­ces­sing and non-​​targeted data­base searches. Accor­dingly, we pro­pose the cons­truc­tion of a Cardiac-​​specific Orga­ne­lle Pep­tide (COP) Spec­tral Library, which will pro­vide a spe­cia­li­zed, com­prehen­sive, and inte­rac­tive resource for the car­dio­vas­cu­lar com­mu­nity. We aim to engi­neer a robust and high fide­lity library to ena­ble tar­ge­ted pep­tide data searches with func­tio­nal anno­ta­tions. This library will cata­lo­gue expe­ri­men­tal pep­tide spec­tra obtai­ned from car­dio­vas­cu­lar orga­ne­lles of various spe­cies; it will con­tain a Wiki-​​like web inter­face to engage the par­ti­ci­pa­tion of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar com­mu­nity; and it will build a car­dio­vas­cu­lar pro­teome know­led­ge­base with efforts from pro­teo­mic scien­tists, bio­lo­gists, and car­dio­vas­cu­lar clinicians.

In sum­mary, this COP Spec­tral Library will create an essen­tial tool box to sup­port the trans­la­tion of pro­teo­mic data into the advan­ce­ment of car­dio­vas­cu­lar bio­logy and medi­cine; it will bridge the gap bet­ween tra­di­tio­nal data-​​driven pro­teo­mic stu­dies and hypothesis-​​driven inves­ti­ga­tions widely emplo­yed by the car­dio­vas­cu­lar com­mu­nity, pro­pe­lling inno­va­tion and new discoveries.