The term "proteome" refers to the complete set of proteins expressed by a particular cell, tissue, or organism at a given time. It includes not only the individual proteins themselves but also their post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, glycosylation, and ubiquitination.
Proteomics is the large-scale study of the proteome, with the goal of understanding the structure, function, and regulation of proteins in a biological system. Proteomics approaches use a combination of biochemical and biophysical techniques, such as mass spectrometry, to identify, quantify, and analyze proteins in a complex mixture.
Proteomics has important applications in areas such as functional genomics, biomarker discovery, drug target identification, and disease diagnosis and prognosis. It allows researchers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying biological processes and to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.