Patent ID: 6393367
Filing Date: 2002-05-21
Classification: H01J,Y10T

Abstract:
A method for determining the probability that a biological molecule identification is incorrect for a chosen significance level and for a particular experimental condition, the method comprising:a) generating theoretical mass data for biological molecules; b) generating an experimental mass data for an unknown biological molecule; c) comparing the experimental mass data generated in step (b) with each theoretical mass data generated in step (a); d) calculating a score for each comparison in step (c), wherein the score is a function of the similarity between each of the data generated in step (a) and the data generated in step (b); e) selecting at least two scores from the scores in step (d) to form a primary data set, wherein the scores correspond to a comparison that denotes a degree of similarity between each of the data generated in step (a) and the data generated in step (b); f) generating a sufficient quantity of artificial data sets from the primary data set in step (e); g) calculating a sample mean for each artificial data set in step (f); h) estimating population mean and population standard deviation from the sample means generated in step (g); wherein the population is based on the distribution underlying the primary dataset; i) computing a Z score from the population mean and population standard deviation for each score calculated in step (d) to standardize the scores; j) choosing a significance level; and k) comparing a test Z score to a Z score of the chosen significance level to determine the probability that the biological molecule identification is incorrect.