Protein-protein interactions are central to all cellular processes. Understanding of protein-protein interactions is therefore fundamental for many areas of biochemical and biomedical research and will facilitate an understanding of the cell process-regulating machinery, disease causative mechanisms, biomarkers, drug target discovery and drug development. In this review, we summarize methods for populating and analyzing the interactome, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. Applications of interactomics in both the biochemical and clinical arenas are presented, illustrating important recent advances in the field.
Keywords: interactomics; network analysis; network hubs; protein–protein interactions; proteomics.