Facilitating Analysis and Dissemination of Proteomics data through Metadata Integration in MaxQuant

Metadata plays an essential role in the analysis and dissemination of proteomics data. It annotates sample information for output tables from library searches and displays sample information from data files in public repositories. However, integrating metadata into data analysis can be time-consuming and is not well standardized. Then inconsistent metadata formats in public repositories would make it even more difficult for other researchers to reproduce and reuse these public datasets. Here we present the metadata integration in MaxQuant, which provides a user-friendly way to export metadata as SDRF, the standard format that maps sample properties to proteomics data files. We have also implemented the annotation of output tables with the SDRF file, enabling users to perform seamless downstream data analysis with annotated output tables. These new features provide a simple and standardized approach to creating and leveraging standardized metadata. They will greatly facilitate data analysis and improve the reusability and reproducibility of public proteomics datasets.