Table of Contents

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2024-10-21
Skyline Targeted Mass Spec Environment
Install 64-bit Skyline 24.1
   Install 64-bit Skyline 24.1 Unplugged
   Skyline 24.1 Administrator Install
Install 32-bit Skyline (deprecated)
   Install 32-bit Skyline Unplugged
Release Notes
Tutorials
   教程 (中国语文)
     靶向 方法编辑
     靶向方法优化
     分析分类研究的数据
     处理已有定量实验数据
     MS1 全扫描筛选
     针对 MS1 筛选的 DDA 搜索
     并行反应监测 (PRM)
     非数据依赖型采集
     SWATH 数据分析
       Q Exactive SWATH 数据分析
       TripleTOF SWATH 数据分析
     小分子目标
     小分子方法开发与 CE 优化
     小分子定量
     绝对定量
     自定义实时报告
     iRT 保留时间预测
   チュートリアル(日本語版)
     ターゲットメソッドの編集
     ターゲットメソッドの最適化
     によるグループ研究データの処理
     既存データ処理および定量実験
     MS1フルスキャンフィルタ
     MS1 フィルタ用 DDA 検索
     併発反応モニタリング(PRM)
     DIA、データ非依存性解析
     SWATHデータの分析
       Q Exactive SWATHデータの分析
       TripleTOF SWATHデータの分析
     によるターゲットメタボロミクス解析
     小分子メソッド開発とCE最適化
     小分子の定量化
     絶対定量
     カスタムレポートとライブレポート
     iRT保持時間予測
   Targeted Method Editing
   Targeted Method Refinement
   Processing Grouped Study Data
   Existing and Quantitative Experiments
   MS1 Full-Scan Filtering
   DDA Search for MS1 Filtering
   Parallel Reaction Monitoring (PRM)
   Basic Data Independent Acquisition
   Analysis of DIA/SWATH Data
     Analysis of Q Exactive DIA/SWATH Data
     Analysis of TripleTOF DIA/SWATH Data
   Analysis of diaPASEF Data
   Small Molecule Targets
   Small Molecule Method Development and CE Optimization
   Small Molecule Multidimensional Spectral Libraries
   Small Molecule Quantification
   Hi-Res Metabolomics
   Absolute Quantification
   Custom Reports
   Advanced Peak Picking Models
   iRT Retention Time Prediction
   Collision Energy Optimization
   Ion Mobility Spectrum Filtering
   Spectral Library Explorer
   Audit Logging
   ETH Targeted Proteomics Course Tutorials
Videos
   Video 1: Method Editing
   Video 2: Results Analysis
   Video 3: Existing & Quantitative Experiments
   Video: Trailer
Webinars
YouTube Channels
Tips
   Terminology Cheat Sheet
   Installing Skyline
     Recovering From a Broken Installation
     Recovering the .sky File Extension Association
     Running Skyline TeamCity Artifact Builds
   Small Molecules
     Automatic Precursor Isotopes
     UI Modes
     Adduct Descriptions and Small Molecule Labels
   Getting lists of data out of Skyline
     Pivot Editor
     Document Grid Number and Date Formats
     Skyline Lists
     Result File Rules in Skyline 20.2
     Hierarchical Clustering (and PCA Plots) in Skyline-daily
   DIA (Data Independent Acquisition)
     Generating an Overlapping Window Isolation List using Skyline
     Full Spectrum Demultiplexing of Overlapped DIA Windows using MSConvert
     Import OpenSWATH Results
     Slides Explaining Data Independent Acquisition
     DIA Methods for Thermo Q Exactive
   Quantification
     Normalization Methods
     Batch Calibration
     SureQuant and Triggered Acquisition
     Surrogate Standards
     How Skyline Calculates Peak Areas and Heights
   Skyline System Requirements
     Parallel Import Performance
   Vendor-Specific Instrument Tuning Parameters
     Ardia Platform setup and importing a file from Ardia Platform
     Support for Bruker TOF Instruments
     SCIEX Instrument Settings
     Export SRM Methods for a Thermo LTQ
   Integration with Other Tools
     How Skyline Builds Spectral Libraries
     ID Annotations Missing with Mascot Search Results
   Share Skyline Documents in Manuscripts
     Sharing MS/MS Spectra with Manuscripts
   Miscellaneous
     ExD ion types
     Peak Area Dotp Line Plot
     Synchronized Integration
     Skyline and Java
     Skyline Protein Association
     Spectrum Filters in Skyline 23.1
     EncyclopeDIA Search from Skyline 23.1
     Automated labels layout
     Skyline Batch
     Skyline File Types and Extensions
     Waters SONAR Calibration
     Audit Logging
     Crosslinking
     New in Skyline 4.1
     How to Display Multiple Peptides
     Ion Mobility Separation (IMS) Data
   Skyline Source Code
     How to build Skyline
Documentation
Users Meetings
Publications
   ASMS 2012 WOA am MacLean Presentation
   ASMS 2020 WOA am MacLean Presentation
Press
Awards
License Agreement
Other
   How You Can Help
   Get Involved
   3rd-Party Software
   Related
Funding
   Seattle Quant: A Resource for the Skyline Software Ecosystem
Dashboard
Team

Skyline Targeted Mass Spec Environment


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Marsh, Journal of Proteome Research - Skyline Batch: An Intuitive User Interface for Batch Processing with Skyline
[abstract][full-text]

Rohde, Bioinformatics - Audit Logs to enforce document integrity in Skyline & Panorama
[abstract][full-text]

Adams, Journal of Proteome Research - Skyline for Small Molecules: A Unifying Software Package for Quantitative Metabolomics
[abstract][full-text]

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Install 64-bit Skyline 24.1


Thank you for your interest in using Skyline software for your targeted proteomics research or mass spectrometer quality control.




Install 64-bit Skyline 24.1 Unplugged


Welcome to the 64-bit Skyline off-line installation page, the place to download an installer which you can use to install 64-bit Skyline on computers without internet access, such as instrument control computers used for native method export and quality control data assessment. These computers must be running a 64-bit version of Windows.

Please review the license terms and system requirements before installing Skyline. If you accept the terms of the agreement, click I Agree to continue. You must accept the agreement to install Skyline.



To install Skyline without internet access:

  • Download the ZIP file from this page.
  • Extract its contents.
  • Run the setup.exe file in the extracted folder.
  • If you are told you need Windows Installer 3.2, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 4.0, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 4.5.1, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 4.7.2, you can download it from [here].

Remember, without internet access, Skyline will not be able to tell you about new releases and automatically perform updates. You will be responsible for making any necessary updates. You are more likely to fall behind on critical bug fixes and new features. If you have internet access, it is still preferable to use the normal web installation.




Skyline 24.1 Administrator Install


The administrator install of Skyline installs in C:\Program Files.  It is used for the rare cases where an administrator needs to install Skyline on a computer that many users have accounts on, and the administrator does not want each user to have to install Skyline themselves.

Known issues:

  • Upgrading does not work. If you have an earlier version of the Skyline Administrator install, you must uninstall the previous version. If you do not do this, then the files that get installed in "C:\Program Files\Skyline" will be a nonsensical mixture of files from the two different versions, and nothing will work. You can recognize the Skyline Administrator Install in Control Panel because it looks like "Skyline (64 bit)".
  • Only an administrator can install external tools in Skyline

Please review the license terms and system requirements before installing Skyline. If you accept the terms of the agreement, click I Agree to continue. You must accept the agreement to install Skyline.






Install 32-bit Skyline (deprecated)


The 32-bit Skyline has been discontinued since version 20.2, after its overall use had fallen below 1% of all Skyline startups.

Install 64-bit Skyline for higher memory limits. [64-bit]

You can install older versions of 32-bit Skyline unplugged for computers from our archive.




Install 32-bit Skyline Unplugged


The 32-bit Skyline has been discontinued since version 20.2, after its overall use had fallen below 1% of all Skyline startups.

Install 64-bit Skyline for the latest features and higher memory limits. [64-bit]

If you require an older version of 32-bit Skyline, please review the license terms before installing Skyline. If you accept the terms of the agreement, click I Agree to continue. You must accept the agreement to install Skyline.



To install Skyline without internet access:

  • Download the ZIP file from this page.
  • Extract its contents.
  • Run the setup.exe file in the extracted folder.
  • If you are told you need Windows Installer 3.2, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 4.0, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 4.5.1, you can download it from [here].
  • If you are told you need .NET Framework 4.7.2, you can download it from [here].

Remember, without internet access, Skyline will not be able to tell you about new releases and automatically perform updates. You will be responsible for making any necessary updates. You are more likely to fall behind on critical bug fixes and new features. If you have internet access, it is still preferable to use the normal web installation.




Release Notes


Skyline v24.1 Released on 7/17/2024

  • New! File > Search submenu putting all our search pipeline options in a place you can find.
  • New! Complete support for FragPipe and DIA-NN integration.
  • New! Complete EncyclopeDIA pipeline with narrow and wide window searches and staggered window demultiplexing.
  • New! File > Import > Features Detection - MS1 peptide feature finding with Hardklor/Bulseye.
  • New! MS/MS spectrum and RT prediction with Koina (Prosit model available).
  • New! Peak Areas > Relative Abundance plot.
  • Added right-click Auto Arrange Labels option on the Group Comparison
  • Volcano and Peak Areas
  • Relative Abundance plots for publishable figures.
  • Added matching small molecule versions of all standard peptide reports in Document Grid.
  • Added gene level parsimony option in protein association dialog.
  • Added File > Open from Panorama with anonymous account access to Panorama, e.g. Panorama Public.
  • Added "Peptide Spectrum Match Count" to the PeptideResult in the Document Grid.
  • Added support for Proteome Discoverer 3.1 in spectral library builder.
  • Added modification and special fragment ions for TMTpro.
  • Added support for precursor isotopes and reporter ions to transition list import.
  • Added support in Spectral Library Explorer for contains search by using preceding asterisk, e.g. *IDE.
  • Added tooltips to the Peak Areas - Replicate Comparison plot.
  • Added command-line arguments for File > Export > Spectral Library.
  • Added command-line arguments for File > Export > mProphet Features.
  • Added command-line arguments for peptide digestion settings.
  • Added command-line arguments for peptide filter settings.
  • Added command-line arguments for File > Export > Annotations.
  • Added command-line argument --import-pep-list.
  • Added command-line argument --associate-proteins-fasta for associating existing document peptides with a FASTA.
  • Added command-line arguments --pep-add-mod*, --pep-clear-mods, and --integrate-all.
  • Added command-line argument —pep-add-mod-variable=<true|false> for explicit setting of peptide modifications to “variable” or “fixed”.
  • Added command-line arguments to add annotations.
  • Added command-line argument --verbose-errors to help troubleshoot unexpected errors.
  • Added support for reading chemical formulas with Unicode numeric subscript text.
  • Added "Surrogate External Standard" that can be set on Peptides and Molecules in the Document Grid which enable using a different molecule's calibration curve for quantification.
  • Added ion mobility columns for library building SSL format.
  • Added support for Agilent MassHunter 12 method export.
  • Added support for Thermo Astral and Orbitrap GC instruments.
  • Added method export support for the Thermo Stellar instrument.
  • Added support for SCIEX OS software (exporting acquisition methods and quantitation methods) for QQQ/QTRAP and QTOF platforms.
  • Added support to treat WIFF1 and WIFF2 as separate types (e.g. for purposes of import results form)
  • Added File > Export > Transition List for Agilent MH 12.1.
  • Added Dot Product value to Full-Scan view property grid that compares the spectrum in the plot with the expected distribution.
  • Added "Replicate Name" to the things that can be set using Result File Rules.
  • Added warning to the immediate window when a CCS<=>IM conversion fails.
  • Added warning when adding decoys or training an mProphet model if document uses explicit peak boundaries from spectral libraries.
  • Added red text and warning tooltip on Transition Settings
  • Full Scan tab if retention time filtering is selected with "PRM" or "SureQuant" acquisition methods.
  • Added isotope distribution matching to pick best ion mobility value in ion mobility library "Use Results".
  • Added support for MSFragger pepXML/mzML pairs for Bruker timsTOF data with plain integer scan numbers in the spectrumNativeID attribute.
  • Update to MassLynxSDK 4.11.0.
  • Updated Shimadzu data reader DLLs.
  • Updated SCIEX method export DLLs.
  • Updated to MSFragger 3.8.
  • Updated available modifications to current UniMod, Mascot naming, and ProteinPilot abbreviations.
  • Improved peak quality indicators in the Targets view for the colorblind.
  • Improved performance of .sky file reading.
  • Improved performance of "Aligning Retention Times".
  • Improved performance displaying protein tooltips (and Library Match window) when Max Neutral Losses is high.
  • Improved CE Optimization method and transition list export for Agilent to stop adding 0.01 to the Q3 m/z values.
  • Improved Associate Proteins form to keep unmapped peptides in an "Unmapped Peptides" list, and hide min peptides per protein option when called from the Refine menu.
  • Improved sort order for adducts so that molecule precursor ions are ordered by mass, as with peptides.
  • Improved "Apply Peak" to work with multiple-selection in the Targets tree.
  • Improved Spectral Library Explorer to suggest adding "common" modifications instead of less common modifications when unknown modifications are found in library.
  • Improved Spectral Library Explorer for a better experience with larger small molecule libraries.
  • Improved error handling when attempting to parse formulas with errors in mass offsets, e.g. "C12H5H3[+3.2/3x3]"
  • Improved TMT support by excluding reporter ions when calculating library dot products and detecting peaks.
  • Improved tolerance for ion mobility data with bad CCS calibrations.
  • Improved error message display interacting with Panorama.
  • Improved peptide Unimod modification defaults for "variable" and "fixed" to make only alkylation, isobaric tag labels, and loss-only modifications "fixed" by default.
  • Expanded DIA isolation scheme detection to 1000 spectra cycles for gas phase fractionation (GPF) and Astral.
  • Reduced the minimum number of values required for a dot product to be calculated from 3 to 2.
  • Changed so that the "Do you want to add decoys" message only gets shown for DIA when importing results if the document has at least 20 peptides in it.
  • Changed to reset standards in File > New to decrease confusion over documents with unexpected "light" as standard instead of "heavy".
  • Changed values such as "Normalized Area", "Calculated Concentration" to have a value even when some peaks are missing or truncated.
    • Warning messages are displayed in Document Grid.
    • Old behavior is available with "Normalized Area Strict" sub-property in Document Grid.
  • Fixed error that sometimes happens choosing "Kernel Density Estimation" on Retention Times run to run regression graph.
  • Fixed error that could happen when clicking on an ID line on the chromatogram graph.
  • Fixed calculation of bogus isolation window offsets when WIFF2 file returns 0 for lower/upper window bounds.
  • Fixed Associate Proteins form to use final document counts for proteins and peptides in the "prot, pep, prec, tran" string (so it includes decoys, iRT, and the unmapped peptide group in the count).
  • Fixed MSAmanda to write PeptideEvidence with isDecoy attribute.
  • Fixed IdentData mzIdentML parser to be case-insensitive on isDecoy attribute.
  • Fixed case where View > Transitions > QC shows blank menu item instead of list of available QC graphs.
  • Fixed Import Transition List / Assay Library to allow users to deal with errors after click on OK if errors were previously reviewed.
  • Fixed "Chromatogram Information Unavailable" in small molecule document with spectrum filters.
  • Fixed centroiding for Waters non-IMS data to be done spectrum by spectrum instead of all at once.
  • Fixed repeated neutral loss labels on crosslinked peptide transitions in Library Match view.
  • Fixed unexpected error copying and pasting protein groups.
  • Fixed unexpected error hovering over Protein in Targets tree if .skyd file cannot be read.
  • Fixed incorrect TIC area in documents with QC traces and transition full scan retention time filtering.
  • Fixed unexpected error in small molecule transition list reader.
  • Fixed edge case in detection of Waters lock mass channel.
  • Fixed "times and intensities disagree in point count" error applying a Spectrum Filter to an MS1 Transition.
  • Fixed reading compensation voltage values from mzML files.
  • Fixed unexpected error extracting chromatograms from raw file when there are pressure traces but no MS1 spectra.
  • Fixed command-line output of transition full-scan settings changes.
  • Fixed unexpected error attempting to modify base molecule in targets tree with an invalid chemical formula.
  • Fixed WIFF SIM/SRM chromatogram extraction to operate on the entire time range instead of within the scheduled limits.
    • Works around a bug(?) with Sciex WIFF where it records the wrong scheduled limits but the data is there if you tell it to ignore the limits.
  • Fixed Bruker TSF reader crashing when enumerating chromatograms when the file has empty spectra.
  • Fixed library build from pepXML to check for spectrum files in the base_name's parent path (if present).
  • Fixed small molecule chromatogram extraction to limit time range based on retention time prediction.
  • Fixed to update Document Grid when annotations are removed from the document.
  • Fixed DIA-NN speclib N-terminus mods to be moved/merged to the N-terminal AA.
  • Fixed spurious Skyline Batch error about empty directory when directory contained .d folders.
  • Fixed error displaying dot product line on Peak Area Replicate Comparison graph when currently selected peptide has no transitions of the type (precursor or product).
  • Changed to display a warning message in the Immediate Window when Skyline discards chromatograms because the Explicit Retention Time is outside the retention time range over which the chromatogram was extracted.
  • Fixed BiblioSpec to use the spectrumNativeID attribute in pepXML when reading MSFragger pepXML.
  • Fixed unexpected error ("Attempt to add integration information for missing file") when doing a rescore with multiple injections if it fails because of missing iRT standards.
  • Fixed transitions getting incorrectly added/removed from siblings when changing children of a precursor with a Spectrum Filter.
  • Fixed unexpected error in Edit Spectrum Filter form.
  • Fixed unexpected error when selected QC trace is not present in a particular replicate.
  • Fixed truncation of report text copied to the clipboard when report columns include "CleavageAa".
  • Fixed command-line arguments --tran-product-*-special-ion not being processed if they are the only filter arguments passed.
  • Fixed Skyline detection of Waters RAW folders to be case-insensitive.
  • Fixed error that could happen if DIA-NN chosen peak was outside of extracted chromatogram range.
  • Fixed unexpected error in Retention Times Replicate Comparison graph when aligning retention times and there are missing results.
  • Fixed unexpected error in the Detections plot.
  • Fixed unexpected error importing peak boundaries with malformed peptide modification.
  • Fixed unexpected error when spectrum from an extracted chromatogram cannot be found in the raw file.
  • Fixed incorrect isotope dot product for newly imported small molecule precursor transition.
  • Fixed MS1 chromatogram extraction when doing PRM CE Optimization.
  • Fixed adducts like [M+H-H2O] on molecules described as mass-only.
  • Fixed unexpected error in Peak Areas > Replicate Comparison graph when a peptide has missing results for one replicate.
  • Fixed unexpected error bringing up Full-Scan spectrum view on some datasets.
  • Fixed unexpected error displaying TIC chromatogram when not available in some datasets.
  • Fixed parsing spectrum IDs from MSFragger pepXML files with MGF spectrum files.
  • Fixed unresponsive long wait when doing "Equalize Medians" in huge documents.
  • Fixed unexpected error using "Apply Peak to All" when one replicate has missing chromatograms.
  • Fixed unexpected error importing a small molecule transition list.
  • Fixed unexpected error after Modify Molecule form to change charge state in a way that makes no sense with the current adduct.
  • Fixed unexpected error after Modify Transition form to change the precursor adduct in a way that makes no sense with parent molecule, or vice versa.
  • Fixed unexpected error exporting a report definition to a .skyr file that cannot be written to.
  • Fixed to output a warning message to the Immediate Window if a single transition's chromatogram is being discarded because of the Explicit Retention Time.
  • Fixed unexpected error using "Edit Modifications" form.
  • Fixed volcano plot formatting when Match Expression includes both fold change and p-value.
  • Fixed loss annotations in MS/MS spectra to work for mass-only losses.
  • Fixed unexpected error in Spectral Library Explorer when amino acid 'J' had a modification on it.
  • Fixed unexpected error showing Detections graph when document has no results.
  • Fixed preventing multiple spectrum filters from being added to heavy precursor.
  • Fixed optimization step incorrect for some Agilent collision optimization data.
  • Fixed "Matrix must be positive definite" error that sometimes happened with bilinear fit calibration curves.
  • Fixed handling explicit adduct charge declarations (e.g. the trailing "+" in "[M+2CH3+Cl]+").
  • Fixed Panorama error "Documents with same GUID should have same first audit log entry" when audit log restarted.
  • Fixed unexpected error showing full scan graph when transitions differ only be neutral loss.
  • Fixed unexpected error doing "Apply Peak to All" when retention times have been aligned.
  • Fixed unexpected error searching for missing peak scores when peptide is missing results for one replicate.
  • Fixed chromatogram weirdness when renamed molecule used to have the same name as another molecule in the document.
  • Fixed disk error that would sometimes happen at end of chromatogram extraction.
  • Fixed Edit > Find (Ctrl-F) form to set focus to the text box for immediate typing.
  • Fixed several command-line operations that were not being recorded in the Audit Log.
    • Including "--import-annotations", "--import-peak-boundaries", "--reintegrate", "--add-decoys", and "--import-file".
  • Fixed graphs sometimes blank when displaying more than 100 precursors at the same time.
  • Fixed error adding decoys to a document with high resolution MS1 and sulfur containing amino acids.
  • Fixed exporting negative RT values in Agilent instrument methods.
  • Fixed using too much memory outputting report with "Normalized Area" column when document has Peptide Quantification regression method set to something other than "None".
  • Fixed reading CE from WIFF file spectra.
  • Fixed search errors from Search control to be more specific.
  • Fixed ion mobility values from spectral libraries (with no .imsdb file) not appearing in reports.
  • Fixed to gracefully handle network error during chromatogram loading.
  • Fixed potential hang extracting chromatograms when some protein groups have proteins with nonstandard accession numbers.

Skyline v23.1 Updated on 4/1/2024

  • Updated code signing certificate to one that expires in 2027.

Skyline v23.1 Updated on 1/15/2024

  • Finalized Chinese and Japanese translation text.
  • Fixed File > Export > Method for Waters TQ instruments.
  • Fixed removal of useful reports in small molecule mode "Molecule RT Results" and "Molecule Transition Results".
  • Fixed error extracting chromatograms from raw file when there are pressure traces but no MS1 spectra.
  • Fixed incorrect TIC area in documents with QC traces and Transition Settings - Full-Scan retention time filtering.

Skyline v23.1 Released on 9/24/2023

  • New! EncyclopeDIA search support in File > Import > Peptide Search for DIA data.
  • New! Spectrum filters for extracting separate chromatograms for precursors handled differently in the mass spec e.g. different detectors or fragmentation methods.
  • New! Parameter (CE) optimization for TOF and Orbitrap instruments.
  • Added spectrum properties to Library Match view.
  • Added spectrum properties in the Full-Scan graph.
  • Added annotations for "Special Ions" (e.g. TMT) in MS/MS graphs.
  • Added library ion match tolerance unit setting in the transition settings to support PPM values.
  • Added "ChromatogramStartTime" and "ChromatogramEndTime" to Transition Result Chromatogram in Document Grid.
  • Added Skewness, Kurtosis, Standard Deviation, and Shape Similarity Score to Transition Results in Document Grid.
  • Added new command-line arguments for building ion mobility libraries: --ionmobility-create-library and --ionmobility-create-library-name
  • Bruker PaSER support improvements:
    • Recognize "PrecursorIonMobility" as a synonym for "1/K0".
    • Store ion mobility values from File > Import > Assay library in the .blib file.
  • Added library build support for Bruker Paser results and library.
  • Added library build support for crosslinked peptide sequences in .ssl files.
  • Added library build support for PeptideProphet .proxl.xml files.
  • Added library build support for MeroX proxl.xml files and cleavable crosslinks.
  • Added support for putting results files in File > Share .sky.zip.
  • Added support for showing a library match spectrum with multiple precursors selected.
  • Added tooltips on Libraries and Modifications lists in Peptide Settings dialog.
  • Added more choices when defining Group Comparisons.
  • Added support for Agilent DAD spectra and UIB chromatograms.
  • Added log output of the count of BiblioSpec PSMs that do not pass the score filter and improved error message when score filter is the cause of no PSMs being added.
  • Added support for File > Export > Method for Thermo Fusion Lumos and Eclipse.
  • Added support for File > Export > Method for SCIEX 7600.
  • Added pressure trace support for Thermo files.
  • Added an error in library builder when SSL peptide sequence has non-uppercase letters or unsupported modification formats.
  • Enabled setting the Standard Type of a peptide using "--import-annotations" command line argument
  • Added "Skyline 22.2" to the list of available formats in the "File > Share" dialog.
  • Added support for Proxl XML files from pLink.
  • Added a button to the toolbar in the View > Spectral Libraries form to show extended properties of the spectrum shown in the graph.
  • Added a button to the toolbar at top of Report Editor to toggle whether properties are sorted alphabetically.
  • Changed the find box on the Document Grid to start out case insensitive.
  • Changed right-click > Replicates > Best in the Targets view from being remembered between runs because it can be confusing.
  • Improved display display performance of Edit Modifications form.
  • Improved support for EncyclopeDIA .elib spectral library files.
  • Improved handling of small molecule transition lists where document settings can help with precursor isotopes.
  • Improved handling of .skyp files downloaded from Panorama to show progress and request log-in information.
  • Improved error handling when downloading MSGF+ fails.
  • Improved importing .MSP library files for GCMS use.
  • Improved default size of Audit Log, PCA Plot and HeatMap when they are first shown.
  • Improved support for interactive tools:
    • Added tool service method "ImportPeakBoundaries".
    • Improved performance of tool service method "DeleteElements".
  • Improved error reporting when communicating with Panorama.
  • Improved error reporting when unzipping an external tool.
  • Improved temp file cleanup and testing when running peptide search tools.
  • Improved error handling when parsing FASTA in Associate Proteins form.
  • Improved score information on Library Details form in View > Spectral Libraries.
  • Improved detection of lockmass function in Waters .raw files.
  • Updated to Bruker TDF-SDK v2.21.
    • Added Bruker TSF format support.
  • Update WIFF2 SDK to support all instruments.
  • Updated handling of Waters DDA data.
  • Updated Mascot Parser to 2.8.1 for parsing Mascot DAT files to build spectral libraries.
  • Increased limit on number of spectra that could be in a spectral library from 16 million to more than 100 million.
  • Fixed View > Transitions > QC showing blank menu item instead of the list of available QC graphs.
  • Fixed an unexpected error importing a small molecule transition list lacking anything like a "name" column.
  • Fixed library details for EncyclopeDIA .elib files.
  • Fixed MSFragger DDA search handle DDA PASEF data correctly.
  • Fixed errors caused by assuming lockmass function is not IMS: Invalid Scan Number exceptions.
  • Fixed "Order By" menu item disappearing when grouping peak area graph on a replicate annotation which no longer exists.
  • Fixed to allow changing score threshold when building library from Waters MSe final_fragment.csv files.
  • Fixed bug where half of all transitions in certain .elib files would be marked as non-quantitative.
  • Fixed blank panes in peak area peptide comparison when "Transitions > Split Graph" and "Scope > Protein" and selected protein has fewer label types than document.
  • Fixed library builder to read MaxQuant msms.txt files with UTF-8 byte order mark.
  • Fixed error when crosslinked peptides has heavy atoms.
  • Fixed PDF URLs in Start Page to tutorials updated for 22.2.
  • Fixed a number of proteomics features still showing up in small molecule UI mode.
  • Fixed CCS values to be recalculated as needed in chromatogram extractions for consistency in reports.
  • Fixed the Ion Mobility Library Editor to show friendly molecule names in (e.g. "Sulfamethizole" rather than "#$#Sulfamethizole$C9H10N4O2S2$")
  • Fixed Ion Mobility Library Editor to avoid absurd high energy offset values from "Find Results"
  • Fixed an unexpected error in peptide transition list import.
  • Fixed several cases where Skyline could produce a saved file that it could not open.
  • Fixed error when crosslinker attaches to invalid amino acid position.
  • Fixed calculation of m/z of cleavable crosslink fragments.
  • Fixed library build to read ion mobility vendor files in combined spectra form (addresses library build taking forever to try to read MSAmanda searches direct from ddaPASEF .d).
  • Fixed to preserve all decimal places of predicted retention times.
  • Fixed error doing "Save As" on document with very large .skyd file after removing a replicate.
  • Fixed error if SRM chromatogram has zero points in it.
  • Fixed hard crash when reading corrupt SQLite file in Bruker data.
  • Fixed issue where protein descriptions assigned by "Associate Proteins" would disappear when the document was saved and reloaded.
  • Fixed library builder reading newer MSFragger output from timsTOF.
  • Fixed MSFragger searches with C-terminal mods giving error "'c' is not an amino acid".
  • Fixed a logic flaw where Agilent GC-TOF EI data was mistaken for non-GC all ions data.
  • Fixed error clicking on transition with missing chromatogram when viewing single transition chromatogram.
  • Fixed converting Shimadzu DDA precursor m/z values from integers; 1e9 instead of 1e5.
  • Fixed audit logging for Import Peptide Search to stop logging a global cut-off score when the threshold is specified per file.
  • Fixed display of dockable window drop target when dropping near right edge of Skyline window.
  • Fixed location of dockable window drop targets when multiple screens have different screen resolution.
  • Fixed issue where changes to column values such as "Protein Note" made in the Fold Change grid seemed to disappear immediately.
  • Fixed cases where fold change value is NaN if measured peak area is zero.
  • Fixed unexpected error right-clicking in Library Match window.
  • Fixed unexpected error for protein group metadata during saving.
  • Fixed applying Result File Rules when importing results using the command line.
  • Fixed Chinese translation of "irank".
  • Fixed downloading MSGF+ Java virtual machine.
  • Fixed ion type menus in View > Spectral Libraries, Spectrum Match view, and Full-Scan view.
  • Fixed an unexpected error that could happen in Import Transition List if .skyd file is modified.
  • Fixed the way that the background level under the peak is shaded when TransformChrom is something other than Interpolated.
  • Fixed issue where document could not be loaded if a crosslinked peptide was added from the spectral library viewer but the crosslink modification did not have a checkmark next to it in peptide modifications settings.
  • Fixed behavior of missing peaks for spectral libraries with peak boundaries (e.g. DIA-NN, EncyclopeDIA, OpenSWATH).
  • Fixed error handling in grids appearing in Settings forms.
  • Fixed unexpected error on MIDAS library load failure.
  • Fixed MIDAS library support in View > Spectral Libraries.
  • Fixed unexpected error in spectrum Full-Scan view.
  • Fixed handling chemical formulas with zero-count declared atoms.
  • Fixed issues with DIA-NN speclib parsing in library builder.
  • Fixed Spectral Library Explorer source files view to more consistently report statistics.
  • Fixed handling of user editing a molecule in ways that make no sense with child precursor adducts.
  • Fixed issue with mirror spectrum between multiple libraries in Library Match view.
  • Fixed issue where "--report-add" commandline argument would cause all reports from "External Tools" group to be copied to the "Main" group.
  • Fixed chromatogram extraction with ion mobility filtering to use high energy IM offset values for all MS/MS acquisition modes rather than only "All Ions".
  • Fixed issue where Library Match graph disappears if spectrum being displayed has no intensities that are greater than zero.
  • Fixed unexpected error using Prosit when precursor charge was greater than 6.
  • Fixed assay library importing to handle unsorted transition lists.
  • Fixed toolbar buttons and right-click menu in View > Spetral Libraries broken adding property page.
  • Fixed very large (e.g. 6 million lines) Assay Library import.
    • Fixed out-of-memory error.
    • Fixed performance bottleneck introduced in checking for lines with irregulate column counts before starting to import.
    • Fixed requiring large recalculation when "Check For Errors" was already clicked.
  • Fixed "The document specific spectral library does not have valid retention times" when importing peptide search existing EncyclopeDIA 2.0 library.
  • Fixed a problem with Agilent IMS data where fringe CCS and/or DT values cannot roundtrip through the CCS/DT conversion.
  • Fixed a case where saving document after removing modification with neutral losses from settings results in a document which cannot be opened.
  • Fixed a case where ion mobility library entries for crosslinked peptides would be duplicated each time you pressed the "Use Results" button .
  • Fixed peptide losses with multiple charge states not all appearing in the transition options.
  • Fixed peptide charged losses changing to small molecule adducts line [M+H].
  • Fixed Result File Rule Set Editor to allow using newly added annotations without having to first OK the Document Settings dialog.
  • Fixed Document Grid (and other data grids) so that custom formats are applied when doing "Copy All" or "Export".
  • Fixed unexpected error changing annotation value in document grid when the document had been changed.
  • Fixed issue where removing an explicit modification from a document with decoys could result in a document that could no longer be opened.
  • Fixed exporting Waters methods containing compounds with multiple modifications and more than 5 transitions.
  • Fixed behavior where graphs would appear blank if the Legend took up all of the space in the graph.
  • Fixed several issues with Bruker data:
    • Fixed timsTOF instrument type not being recorded in instrumentConfiguration.
    • Fixed negative CE in negative polarity Bruker data not being reported.

Skyline v22.2 Updated on 12/19/2022

  • Finalized Japanese translation text.
  • Fixed downloading MSGF+ Java virtual machine.

Skyline v22.2 Updated on 11/9/2022

  • Finalized Chinese translation text.
  • Fixed an unexpected error with mirror spectrum in the Library Match view.
  • Fixed issues with library building for DIA-NN .speclib files where not all runs were included.
  • Fixed synchronized integration with missing or removed peaks not working.
  • Fixed performance problem with manually integrated peaks with many transitions.
  • Fixed checking for Bruker timsTOF ion mobility issues before showing method scheduling graph.
  • Fixed an unexpected error getting metadata for protein groups.
  • Fixed NaN's that appear in fold change values in PRM Orbitrap tutorial using Tukey's Median Polish.
  • Fixed dotp highlighting (red dots) in Peak Areas - Replicate Comparison plots to appear in front of peak area bars.
  • Fixed admin installer for SCIEX OS method export.

Skyline v22.2 Released on 9/12/2022

  • New! Protein grouping - through File > Import > Peptide Search and Refine > Associate Proteins.
  • New! Library build interface that shows filter cut-offs in a grid, one per file with score type and appropriate scale, i.e. 0.01 for q values.
  • Improved DDA MS/MS peak integration to not use background subtraction, proven to work better for producing high dotp values.
  • Improved peak picking with DDA acquisition method to use "dotp" score when it is above 0.75, likely from a high-quality MS/MS acquired within or near the MS1 peak.
  • Added support for ignoring SIM spectra (commonly used by Thermo as a diagnostic) in MS1 chromatogram extraction.
  • Added support for z+1 and z+2 ions for EAD/ETD MS/MS fragmentation.
  • Peak Areas plot r/i/dotp line graph support made the default, with customizable cut-off highlighting.
  • Added Candidate Peaks view - for new visibility into how Skyline scores and chooses among peaks.
  • Added small molecule support to File > Import > Peak Boundaries.
    • Recognizes a "molecule" or "molecule name" column - analogous to the existing "peptide" column for proteomics documents
    • Added a new standard report "Small Molecule Peak Boundaries" for exporting peak boundaries for small molecule documents.
  • Added "--import-peak-boundaries" command-line argument.
  • Added File > Export > Isolation List support for Bruker timsTOF.
  • Added support for redundant iRT databases.
  • Added an option to minimize libraries included with a Skyline document uploaded to Panorama.
  • Added a context menu option to show collision energy in Full-Scan graph.
  • Added method export support for SCIEX 7500.
  • Added “natural sort” algorithm to the file explorer and document grid.
  • Support for Ion mobility values added for peptide-oriented transition list and assay library imports.
  • Improved default peak scoring model training to allow features that have some unknown score values to be used.
  • Improved error reporting when importing small molecule transition lists.
  • Improved keyboard support for undo (Ctrl-Z) and redo (Ctrl-Y) and fill-down (Ctrl-D) within a floating Document Grid.
  • Improved UI of new Edit > Insert > Transition List form with bigger text instruction in the middle of the form.
  • Improved error handling for exporting SCIEX method.
  • Improved memory consumption in Document Grid when a large amount of Peptide Normalized Area values are being calculated.
  • Improved spectrum annotation to allow show/hide of neutral losses.
  • Added "[M+]" and "[M-]" to the cascading dropdown control for composing ion formulas in the "Modify..." right-click menu item in the Targets tree for small molecules. These were already available for fragment ions but they are also useful for precursors.
  • Added support for heavy copper (Cu' in Skyline formula syntax, Cu65 in adduct syntax)
  • Made peptide transition list import "Associate Proteins" option enabled by default when a background proteome is available.
  • Fixed the Administrator Installer to avoid causing Windows to show a warning before running it.
  • Fixed "Array dimensions exceeded support range" error that can happen when extracting chromatograms from a file with no MS1 spectra.
  • Fixed error opening a new Skyline document while there was an uncommitted change in a text box in the Document Grid.
  • Fixed unexpected error updating an external tool.
  • Fixed reading mzXML from mzML parentFile.
  • Fixed mzXML parser to treat invalid scanType attributes (e.g. "CID") as full scan MS1/MSn with a warning.
  • Fixed library builder pepXML reader to skip non-AA characters in the unmodified peptide sequence.
  • Fixed sticky Y axis in the Full-Scan view.
  • Fixed mode-specific (proteomics vs. molecule) reports to show/hide based on the mode and added molecule-specific reports for quantification.
  • Fixed some inconsistent handling of attempts to add an empty transition list.
  • Fixed a problem with reading transition lists defined by m/z only, and with implied isotope labels.
  • Sped up generating the list of peptides with missing values from the edit peak scoring form.
  • Fixed chromatogram display when optimization data is asymmetric as when CE values go to zero and below.
  • Fixed FASTA parser unexpected error when faced with unusual header lines.
  • Fixed NullReferenceException that can happen when extracting chromatograms and predicted retention times are outside of range of spectra.
  • Fixed problem where, when doing "File > Share > Minimal", peptides in the document which had modifications would not end up in the minimized iRT database.
  • Fixed the display of peak boundaries on the chromatogram graph when all transitions shown are non-quantitative as in DDA.
  • Fixed inappropriate use of MS/MS in peak picking scores for DDA acquisition method.
  • Fixed unexpected error in Library Match view.
  • Fixed unexpected error that can happen showing the PCA plot if the dataset has only one numeric column.
  • Fixed unexpected error doing "Apply Peak" when one result file in a replicate was missing results.
  • Fixed unexpected error using too long of a path when doing "Save As".
  • Fixed Divide by Zero error minimizing a document that has replicates but no chromatograms.
  • Fixed error in full scan spectrum viewer that could happen if you rapidly click multiple times on the chromatogram graph.
  • Fixed TIC for WIFF files.
  • Fixed SkylineDailyRunner.exe to work with Windows user names that contain ampersand (&) or caret (^).
  • Fixed synchronized integration behavior when acting on a chromatogram not selected for synchronization.
  • Fixed error trying to use small molecule spectral library which did not contain chemical formulas.
  • Fixed localization of "Ratio to Global Standards" etc. label on the Y-axis of peak area graph.
  • Fixed issues building spectral libraries from Proteome Discoverer files.
  • Fixed error that could happen if a particular precursor did not have any results.
  • Fixed issue determining score type for .mzid files.
  • Fixed error that can happen in small molecule documents if you remove an isotope label type that is still being used by some of the precursors in the document.
  • Fixed a problem with Fixed Width ion mobility window value not saving properly when changed in Settings>Transition Settings>Ion Mobility.
  • Fixed error displaying multiple peptide chromatogram graph if any of the chosen peaks has a start retention time equal to zero.
  • Fixed to not calculate Protein Abundance on the decoy peptide list since it is sometimes very slow.
  • Fixed problem with downloading tools that have invalid URL characters in their identifiers.
  • Fixed unhandled error when inserting crosslinked peptide sequence which specified "0" as amino acid position.
  • Fixed unhandled error inserting crosslinked peptide whose precursor m/z was very close to Instrument Max Mz setting.
  • Fixed problem where opening a document with a background proteome and a peptide uniqueness constraint sometimes results in all peptides being removed from document.
  • Fixed ion mobility libraries for crosslinked peptides.
  • Fixed problem where Skyline would allow transitions which contained multiple crosslink fragment ions which were not actually attached to each other.
  • Fixed log scale y-axis label not showing median normalization when appropriate.
  • Fixed audit logging in Import Peptide Search wizard when an existing library is used.
  • Fixed case where Full-Scan settings impacted peak picking in SRM data.
  • Fixed incorrect display of median and TIC normalized values in Peak Area graph.
  • Fixed incorrect calculation of median and TIC normalized areas and group comparisons in some replicates.
  • Fixed problem where Protein Abundance could not be displayed in a report unless the report also included columns from Peptides.
  • Added new document grid columns "Median Peak Area" and "Normalization Divisor" in order to make it easier to see how Skyline calculates normalized areas.
  • Fixed calculating of Median Peak Area in the presence of reference standard peptides so that it uses only internal standard label type peak areas.
  • Fixed spectrum from incorrect file from EncyclopeDIA library displayed in Library Match window.
  • Fixed unhandled error when trying to paste into the Document Grid when it is empty.
  • Fixed mass error sometimes reported as zero when "Triggered chromatogram acquisition" was checked.
  • Fixed DIA-Umpire on spectra that aren't sorted by m/z (e.g. from scanSumming timsTOF data)
  • Fixed a problem with FAIMS on MS2 data in Thermo SureQuant, resulting in jagged chromatograms.
  • Fixed support for building spectral libraries from ProxlXML files from Byonic (converted from mzIdentML).
  • Fixed unexpected error when exporting Bruker timsTOF methods with ion mobilities outside template range.

Skyline v21.2 Updated on 7/20/2022

  • Fixed scheduling graphs showing concurrent precursors when labeled concurrent transitions.
  • Fixed an unexpected error parsing unrecognized FASTA header lines.
  • Fixed communication with UniProt for protein metadata.
  • Fixed small molecule transition list import to issue a warning in some cases where it caused unexpected errors.

Skyline v21.2 Updated on 6/22/2022

  • Fixed downloading MS Fragger due to a recent change to the release website.
  • Fixed error about missing "OFX.Core.Contracts.dll" when importing SCIEX 6500 QQQ wiff file.
  • Fixed problem where if the Targets tree was not supposed to be showing ratios, it would display raw peak areas followed by the word "ratio".

Skyline v21.2 Updated on 3/1/2022

  • Finalized Chinese and Japanese translation text
  • Fixed chromatogram display when optimization data is asymmetric as when CE values go to zero and below.
  • Fixed peptide settings to update normalization methods based on changes to heavy modifications.
  • Fixed ratios displayed in the Targets view.
  • Fixed Edit > Insert > Transition List character limit on pasted clipboard text.
  • Fixed library reading getting handled as unexpected errors rather than reporting them directly with a message.
  • Fixed a problem reading a transition list where, for example, C2H6N[M+H] and C2H6N[M2C13-H] were incorrectly treated as an m/z ambiguity.
  • Fixed a problem reading small molecule transition lists with isotope labels declared in precursor and fragment formulas with integer-only charge declarations.
  • Fixed a problem with reading transition lists defined by m/z only, and with implied isotope labels.
  • Fixed a problem handling transition lists with missing product m/z information.
  • Fixed a problem importing transition lists with an inconsistent number of fields per line.
  • Fixed Sciex method export issue and improved error reporting.
  • Fixed error that can happen moving the mouse across volcano plot after volcano plot has been docked and undocked several times.

Skyline v21.2 Released on 1/4/2022

  • New! Added support for DDA searches with MS Fragger and MSGF+, now options in the Import Peptide Search wizard.
  • New! Synchronized Integration (right-click in a chromatogram graph)
  • New! Improved SureQuant support with "SureQuant" MS/MS acquisition method and method export for Exploris.
    • Also added new PRM acquisition method (an improvement over the old "Targeted" method – now deprecated).
  • Prompt to create decoys for DIA data and when decoys are present auto-train a default model to add q values and z scores.
  • Improved memory use for large-scale DIA to use less than half the memory in most cases.
  • Improved DIA-Umpire performance in Skyline.
  • Added support for transition list import with column selection form for small molecules.
  • Improved transition list column selection form to support Associate Proteins.
  • Replaced Edit > Insert > Transition List with for pasting text followed by the transition list column selection form to be consistent with direct pasting and File > Import Transition List.
  • Line graph representation of dotp/idotp/rdotp in the Peak Areas > Replicate Comparison plot - using right-click menu.
  • Changed rdotp calculation to be consistent with dotp and idotp - using spectrum contrast angle.
    • This will tend to reduce rdotp values slightly if comparing rdotp values after this change with those before it.
  • Added RT annotation display digits on the chromatogram graph right-click > Properties form.
  • Improve library building error message for unrecognized modifications in PLGS outputs to include the ones we will recognize.
  • Improved layout of Import Peptide Search wizard forms when ion mobility values are present, e.g. diaPASEF
  • Improved Export > Spectral Library to use best score instead of first and include z-score.
  • Improved library building support for MSFragger.
  • Improved performance importing large .MSP spectral library files.
  • Added ability to switch between centroided and profile spectra in Full-Scan view.
  • Added mass error annotation display to Full-Scan and Spectrum Match views.
  • Added rdotp annotation in Peak Areas > Replicate Comparison view when showing ratios.
  • Added new filter categories to the Spectral Library Explorer, especially helpful for small molecules.
  • Added support for reading from vendor formats when library build searches for spectra for pepXML ids.
  • Switched to using peptide level q values in pdResult files and special handling for 1% and 5% FDR cutoffs to be more consistent with Spectronaut library builds.
  • Added support for previously unseen "VIP_HESI" ion source in Bruker TIMS data.
  • Added support for the latest chromatogram library export from Panorama, including new support for ion mobility and small molecules.
  • Improved menu options for MS/MS annotations in the Full-Scan view.
  • Skyline no longer requires .NET 3.5.
  • Only write top-ranked transitions when exporting any CoV optimization method
  • Added a warning when exporting a prmPASEF method for timsTOF with wrong CE setting.
  • Export polarity column for Thermo Fusion when Tune v3 is checked.
  • Enabled writing CoV values for Thermo Fusion.
  • Improved support for Waters SONAR data.
  • Updated SCIEX interop DLLs for method export.
  • Update Shimadzu DLLs for method export.
  • Added support for Agilent/Mobilion SLIM data.
  • Added LC/QC chromatograms for Agilent data.
  • Added tooltips on feature names in mProphet model form.
  • Fixed peak scoring for documents using DDA acquisition method in Transition Settings - Full-Scan tab for MS/MS filtering.
  • Fixed Skyline to report AA positions in proteins starting at 1 instead of zero.
    • Added the columns "First Position" and "Last Position" to the document grid which show the 1-based amino acid position of the peptide in the protein.
    • Changed the numbers that are displayed in the Targets tree so that they are 1-based instead of 0-based.
    • Columns "Begin Pos" and "End Pos" are now marked "Obsolete", which means that they only show up in the Report Editor if you push the "show all columns" button.
  • Fixed problem where peaks with integration boundaries that were chosen by the user did not get their areas recalculated when you do a reimport.
  • Fixed handling all-ions DIA for Bruker timsTOF bbCID.
  • Fixed a problem reading Bruker files with multiple TIMS calibrations.
  • Fixed library building from DIA-NN speclib to support version 3, and added support for reading scores and ion mobilities.
  • Fixed peptide-specific settings showing up in the Transition Settings - Library tab when in small molecule mode.
  • Fixed MSAmanda running on DDA WIFF files.
  • Fixed handling unexpected errors during auto-training of an mProphet model.
  • Fixed case where "Ratio To" menu item in Targets view did not agree with "Normalize To" in Peak Areas view.
  • Fixed problem removing a Prosit library for library matching in Molecule UI.
  • Fixed unexpected error in heat map graph during a selection change.
  • Fixed Agilent method export for scheduled methods
  • Fixed an issue where a mass-only transition list import of a labeled precursor would come up with the unlabeled mass for the precursor transition.
  • Fixed "Missing transition precursors when you do Refine > Permute Isotope Labels".
  • Fixed "Item with the same key already added" when two small molecules have no Name, same precursor m/z and different set of transitions.
  • Fixed an unexpected error when attempting to parse an ill-formed adduct description.
  • Fixed InvalidOperationException choosing "Transform > None" when the displayed chromatogram has optimization steps.
  • Fixed loading libraries from read-only drive location.
  • Fixed problem where blank document created from the Start Page sometimes never loads.
  • Fixed unexpected error in Import Peptide Search when importing multiple results files with the same name.
  • Fixed preserving scores when using File > Export > Spectral Library.
  • Fixed command-line documentation to use tags instead of non-breaking hyphen for easier copy-paste.
  • Fixed transition list logic to decide proteomic vs. small molecule based on UI mode when no other indicators work.
  • Fixed right-click > Copy in any graph to show a useful error message if the clipboard is locked by another application.
  • Fixed error that happens if you set Instrument Min Time, but leave Instrument Max Time blank.
  • Fixed a problem where if "Triggered Acquisition" was chosen on Transition Instrument Settings, the reported peak areas would all be 60 times smaller than they should be (but did not impact light:heavy ratios).
  • Fixed Spectral Library Explorer handling of peptide with modified 'X'.
  • Fixed a problem where "Protein Abundance" column would display as "column not found" if the report also had any peptide-level columns.
  • Fixed tolerance of Shimadzu .lcd files not containing TIC information.
  • Fixed how Skyline detects the difference between peptide and small molecule transition lists to be first based on finding a peptide sequence with a matching precursor m/z.
  • Fixed writing CE and DP to large Skyline documents for upload to Panorama.
  • Fixed coloring of peak annotations in MS/MS spectra for small molecules.
  • Fixed filtering of targets when building spectral libraries from existing BLIB files.
  • Fixed an infrequent potential race condition in the DIA-Umpire implementation.
  • Fixed transition list column picker saving column assignments only when they are valid.
  • Fixed a recently introduced problem where we were not identifying transition list columns as numeric if the values were in quotes.
  • Fixed MaxQuant spectral library build to check up to 4 levels above msms.txt for spectrum files and improved the error message when files are not found.
  • Fixed a problem processing Waters Cyclic IMS data, wherein the lockmass functions do not have IMS data.
  • Fixed order by m/z method export bug when multiple precursors have the same m/z.
  • Fixed cases where "View" was used in the UI instead of "Reports".
  • Fixed calculation of R-squared for calibration curves that use "Linear in Log Space" fit.
  • Fixed an unexpected error that can occur when "Transition Settings > Ion Mobility > Use spectral library values when present" is enabled.
  • Fixed View > Library Match y-axis was not updating correctly in response to changes in selection in the Targets view.
  • Fixed .skyd file corruption problem which could happen if there were more than 60 million candidate peaks.

Skyline v21.1 Updated on 10/6/2021

  • Finalized Chinese and Japanese translation text
  • Fixes to Import Peptide Search wizard for DIA tutorial and DIA/SWATH tutorial updates.
  • Fixes for DIA-Umpire integration (various).
  • Fixed an unexpected error with Ion Mobility settings.
  • Fixed an unexpected error with the Full-Scan graph showing when displayed peptide is deleted.
  • Fixed an unexpected error in the heatmap graph.
  • Fixed a problem introduced in 21.1 where transition list columns were not identified as numeric if the values were in quotes. (impacting LipidCreator)
  • Fixed Import Peptide Search FASTA page to hide panel for importing targets from a separate FASTA when not doing a DDA/DIA search.
  • Fixed a missing DLL issue with Percolator in MS Amanda DDA search.
  • Fixed storing calculated CE and DP values in .sky files with large target lists for Panorama.

Skyline v21.1 Released on 5/27/2021

  • New! DIA-Umpire integration with library-free DIA data processing. (thanks to the Nesvizhskii lab) - [tutorial]
  • New! Skyline Batch for large-scale batch processing of data analysis with Skyline [documentation]
  • New! Class Discovery tools (hierarchical clustering and PCA plot) - [documentation]
  • Extended crosslinked peptide target support to allow any number of peptides and any number of links, especially important to monitoring disulfide bonds on antibody drug conjugates.
  • New UI for direct pasting or File > Import > Tranition List, allowing users to assign meaning to columns.
  • Improved Import > Transition List or Assay Library format detection to do a better job of detecting the list and decimal separators regardless of system number format settings.
  • Detection plot improvements.
  • New spectrum annotation button on the Full-Scan graph to allow full peptide fragment annotation on extraction spectra.
  • Added update progress display to RT > Regression and Scheduling plots.
  • Added calculated concentration y-axis on the peak area graph, found under right-click > Normalize To.
  • Added iRT support for command-line import peptide search.
  • Added View > Targets menu item to clarify how to get Targets back after closing, especially for small molecules.
  • Improved File > Share to avoid saving on unmodified documents and save directly to the .sky.zip file to avoid overwriting the file on disk for modified documents.
  • Enabled the --ui argument for SkylineCmd.exe to show the UI and allow changes that get stored in its user settings file.
  • Adding small molecules from View > Spectral Libraries where the library contains molecule list information will preserve the molecule list name.
  • Added optional display of ion mobility information in chromatogram graphs.
  • File > Export > Spectral Libraries now preserves protein and molecule list name information in the resulting .blib file.
  • Extended spectral library support:
    • Support for the latest DIA-NN speclib format.
    • Support for reading MSP-formatted spectral libraries as exported by Thermo's mzVault Viewer.
    • Support library building with .mzid.gz files and use it for MS Amanda DDA search in Skyline.
    • Support library building for invK0 attribute in pepXML written by PEAKS export.
    • Improved error message when a supported spectral library type (.msp, .sptxt, .hlf) is added as the file to use in building a library.
    • Added support for "RTINSECONDS" retention time encoding in an MSP spectral library file comment.
    • Improved error handling when trying to read a damaged BiblioSpec file.
  • Improved memory consumption during full-scan data import.
  • Added "Simple Ratios" checkbox to Peptide/Molecule Settings > Quantification settings.
  • Added new report fields:
    • Added TransitionResult.CycleTimeAcrossPeak report field.
    • Added Protein.ProteinSequenceCoverage report field with the percent of protein sequence amino acids contained in any of the peptides.
    • Added "Library Ion Mobility" report fields.
    • Added "TransitionResultIsQuantitative" and "TransitionResultIsMs1" report fields for MSstats.
  • Updated instrument vendor integration:
    • Updated Agilent method export format.
    • Updated the SCIEX WIFF2 DLLs.
    • Updated Waters MassLynx DLLs to 4.8 which returns profile IMS data with flanking zero points.
  • Ion mobility improvements found testing Thermo FAIMS support:
    • Negative CoV values now allowed.
    • On export of transition lists, CoV value now pulled from ion mobility library as needed.
    • Ion mobility libraries now support molecules described only as name+mass (was assuming a chemical formula would be available)
    • Viewing raw scan data now shows the scan's ion mobility value when available.
    • Populating an ion mobility library via "Use Results" works properly when two molecules shared the same name but different details
  • Other ion mobility UI fixes:
    • Fixed "Transition Settings > Ion Mobility > Use Spectral Library Ion Mobilities" checkbox to avoid state where it would not uncheck.
    • Full Scan graph now redraws on data reimport when showing ion mobility filter information, to ensure correct position of the purple IM filter band.
  • Fixed an issue with the Full-Scan view showing only one chromatogram type (MS1 or MS/MS) when both are available.
  • Fixed Edit Annotation form to display an error for a value list with not values specified.
  • Fixed opening or creating an ion mobility library file before the "Name" field is completed, an error pops up.
  • Fixed Import Peptide Search for PRM requiring MS1 filtering settings.
  • Fixed problem in number of methods created when exporting an isolation list or method for Thermo Fusion machines.
  • Fixed "Ratio to Heavy" to show up even if Heavy is not an internal standard type.
  • Fixed support for non-Unimod mods and terminal mods in DDA search with MS Amanda.
  • Fixed DDA search with MSAmanda to ignore FileNotFound/DirectoryNotFound when deleting temp files.
  • Fixed import peak boundaries into multi-sample wiff files.
  • Fixed pepXML spectral library building to accept search results from "peaks_db" as well as "peaksdb".
  • Fixed DDA search with MS Amanda fragment tolerance always using precursor tolerance units.
  • Fixed NullReferenceException pushing "Add" button from Result File Rules Edit List form.
  • Fixed issue with Refine >Associate Proteins with a nameless FASTA sequence.
  • Fixed unexpected error typing ')' into the empty element at the bottom of the Targets view.
  • Fixed MSFragger spectral library builder to prefer spectra from _uncalibrated.mgf to avoid de-charged fragment ion peaks.
  • Improved error message loading .skyd file when it is found to be corrupted.
  • Improved audit log hash calculation to avoid the possibility of duplication.
  • Fixed bugs with Turkish language settings mostly related to case insesitive pattern matching.
  • Fixed library build treating Mascot fixed terminal mods as not overridden by variable terminal mods.
  • Fixed an unexpected error when importing results with an ion mobility library when a precursor ion appears more than once in a document.
  • Fixed Waters "Unknown Generic Error" due to calling GetDriftTime() on functions existing in Waters .RAW but not listed in _extern.inf.
  • Fixed precursor ion spectrum support for WIFF files (use <product> element instead of <precursor>).
  • Fixed unexpected error when user specifies a DDA search in the import wizard but then uses the "Back" button to start over.
  • Improved error handling when importing small molecule transition lists with inconsistent molecule descriptions.
  • Fixed unexpected error exporting method for Bruker timsTOF.
  • Fixed bug where Protein Abundance was always #N/A if normalization method is Ratio to Heavy.
  • Fixed a bug in the small molecule UI where inappropriate text was having "Peptide" replaced with "Molecule".
  • Fixed issues in handling loss-only modifications like water and ammonia:
    • Highlighting in the Targets view for loss-only modifications.
    • Not possible to specify loss-only modifications with Edit > Modify Peptide.
    • Importing Assay Libraries with loss-only modifications on peptides requiring explicit modifcations caused an error.
  • Fixed to force choosing a filename with the same extension when a library file is missing.
  • Fixed perf and error problems with "Remove Peak" on the Document Grid.
  • Fixed irtdb docxml bug.
  • Fixed DIA isolation scheme in Import Peptide Search to use the one currently set.
  • Fixed Import Peptide Search case with no results files used to create a template document for Skyline Batch.
  • Fixed to include PeptideSettings - Filter tab settings in Library Explorer - Add All button.
  • Fixed NullReferenceException displaying tooltip on Fold Change Volcano plot if document has small molecules.
  • Fixed library build from MaxQuant search results not applying terminal label-type mods.
  • Fixed custom formats on columns in the Document Grid would be forgotten as soon as the data was refreshed.
  • Fixed Mascot variable mod override logic in library build.
  • Fixed TIC Normalization on the Peak Area Replicate Comparison graph.
  • Fixed message for opening .sky file inside a ZIP file to work when the file is in a subdirectory.
  • Fixed bug preventing DDA search with multiple files of the same name.
  • Fixed "An item with the same key has already been added" exception changing Transition Settings in a document that has a molecule with multiple precursors that are the same as each other.
  • Fixed problem where DDA search incorrectly adds isotope modifications to the document as structural modifications.
  • Fixed problem where rdotp would not appear in the Targets tree if any of the heavy transitions had zero area.
  • Fixed problem where "Accuracy" is miscalculated if the Sample Dilution Factor is not 1.
  • Fixed unexpected error if using "Modify" menu item on a molecule and changing its chemical formula to result in some precursor transitions no longer existing in the mass distribution.
  • Fixed problem where non-quantitative transitions would not show up in Peak Area - Replicates view.
  • Fixed highlighting in red "Include all matching scans" if the Acquisition Method is "Targeted" when that is the right option.
  • Improved agreement between command-line error logging and non-zero exit codes.
    • Users running Chinese and Japanese language Skyline command-line should update SkylineRunner.exe
  • Fixed Tools > Options - Miscellaneous - Clear All Saved Settings for teaching and testing.
  • Fixed a Minimize Results error if it was opened while the document was still loading.
  • Fixed a sizing layout issue in the FASTA page of the File > Import > Peptide Search wizard.
  • Fixed unexpected errors in the RT scheduling graph.
  • Fixed Library Match title to contain library name again - broken when Prosit was added.
  • Fixed --report-invariant command-line argument to always use a comma field separator.
  • Fixed Import Peptide Search to add RT predictor in if adding existing library with iRT values.
  • Fixed Import Peptide Search to always show Match Modifications page.
  • Fixed notification of iRT calculator modification when using BLIB file.

Skyline v20.2 Updated on 12/8/2020

  • Finalized Chinese and Japanese translation text
  • Fixed canceling the ion mobility library editor form when there are errors
  • Fixed some issues with background loading of ion mobility libraries (.imsdb files)
  • Fixed NullReferenceException pushing "Add" button from Result File Rules Edit List form
  • Fixed DDA search fragment tolerance always using precursor tolerance units to allow searching hybrid data
  • Fixed an unexpected error in aduct parsing

Skyline v20.2 Released on 10/13/2020

  • Integrated DDA Search (with MS Amanda) in Import Peptide Search wizard with tutorial
  • Support for crosslinked peptides (chemical crosslinking and disulfide bonds)
    • Single-line modified peptide sequence format support for crosslinked peptide targets (supported in Edit > Insert > Peptides)
      • PEPTIDEA-PEPTIDEB-[+mass@a,b]
      • e.g. PETKPESER-EKVLTSSAR-[+138.06808@4,2]
    • Support for loop-links, e.g. AKIQDKEGIPPDQQR-[+138.06808@2-6]
    • Spectral library building support for Proxl XML (http://proxl-ms.org/) of crosslink peptide seaches
  • Result File Rules - automated annotation population from result file properties including File Name and File Path
  • View > Detection > Replicate Comparison and Histogram plots for applied mProphet models
  • Qualitative ion ratio support
  • iRT improvements
    • "Automatic" option for iRT standard during library building
    • Non-linear iRT - adding Lowess and Logarithmic regressions
    • Improved iRT handling - especially with CiRT - for File > Import > Assay Library
    • Edit iRT Calculator improvements:
      • Add new IrtStandard using the current calculator's standard peptides
      • Store best transitions and relative ion abundance with calculator
  • Made Explicit Retention Time Window limit the range in which peaks are considered.
  • Support Thermo SureQuant using Transition Settings > Instrument > Triggered acquisition checkbox
  • File > Export > Method support for Bruker timsTOF prm-PASEF methods
  • IMS filtering settings moved to Transition Settings - Ion Mobility.
  • Added "Protein Results" -> "Protein Abundance" column to reports to expose the protein value used by the Group Comparison framework.
  • A new Refine > Advanced - Group Comparison tab making it easy to perform the group comparison refinement demonstrated in Webinar 8 (through Refine > Accept Peptides and a bunch of copy-paste operations)
  • Remove based on CV cutoff removes empty peptides
  • Refinement based on CV and GC can still remove proteins based on remaining peptide count
  • Added Prosit support for Propionamide (C)
  • Added a "Product Neutral Loss" column to small molecule transition list reader, which makes it convenient to describe fragments in terms of a chemical formula to be subtracted from the precursor's chemical formula.
  • Reduced the number of columns shown by default in the small molecule Insert Transition List grid
  • Import Peptide Search Wizard added from and to transition filters and min and max instrument m/z values
  • Spectral library building for the DiaNN specLib format.
  • Added support for Golm Metabolome Database GCMS spectral library in .MSP format available at http://gmd.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/
  • Support even more MSP spectral library format variants for small molecules
  • Support for specifying the analyte concentrations for each target by replicate in calibration curves with PeptideResult.ExplicitAnalyteConcentration
  • Added apply peak to group
  • Added list editing buttons to the Document Settings - Reports tab
  • Restored the ability to specify Explicit Collision Energy at the precursor level.
  • Decoys checked against targets and warning presented with ability to regenerate if they don't match closely enough.
  • Added View > Chromatograms > Close All and keyboard short cuts for Close (Ctrl-F4) and Close All (Ctrl-Shift-F4)
  • Removed limit on number of peptides and transitions during File > Import > FASTA - counting on the user to cancel the operation when it is doing more than expected.
  • Improved support for MS1-only TIC and BPC
  • New resizing progress form to show all status text
  • New report values in PrecursorResultsSummary for Detection Q Value (min, max, median)
  • Refresh of all links and images for tutorials in the Start Page - Tutorials form
  • Some performance improvements for very large DIA documents.
  • Command-line not import a raw file from the same path unless a replicate name is specified with --import-replicate-name
  • Command-line support for --decoys-discard
  • Command-line support for --refine-cv-remove-above-cutoff with decimal percent if value <1
  • Improved handling of invalid entries in spectral libraries - warn and filter instead of failing to load
  • Many smaller bug fixes such as:
    • Fixed failure to annotate fragment ions in heavy labeled Prosit predicted spectra.
    • Fixed failure to match m/z values between heavy labeled library spectra and Prosit mirror plot spectra.
    • Fixed handling of small molecule .MSP library files without Precursor_type values.
    • Fixed reading LipidBlast .MSP files from MoNA
    • Fixed support for MaxQuant's NotNTerm and NotCTerm fixed mods
    • Fixed bug where MaxQuant spectral library build failing to parse file if it is missing both optional columns "Labeling State" and "Evidence ID".
    • Fixed library build mzML -> MSFragger -> PeptideProphet pipeline (broken by previous fix to TIMS/MGF -> MSFragger -> PeptideProphet; now both pipelines work)
    • Fixed library build file extension detection to be case insensitive.
    • Fixed library build for tilde quotes ("File:~SomeRunName~") in Mascot DAT parser.
    • Fixed library build for ProxlXml parser to not require linker_mass for unlinked peptides.
    • Fixed a problem reading Agilent GCMS SIM SIC chromatograms
    • Increase the threshold scan range at which we consider an MS1 scan to be a "SIM Scan" from 200 to 500
    • Fixed SkylineCmd.exe error reporting when Skyline[-daily].exe are missing and ability to run from downloaded ZIP file without needing to unblock more than SkylineCmd.exe itself.
    • Fixed possible deadlock using SkylineCmd/Runner to import data
    • Fixed calculation of TIC when not MS1-only TIC is available - temporarily reverting to old slower Skyline code to calculate through spectrum summing - faster fix coming
    • Fixed export of negative CoV values for FAIMS methods
    • Fixed IMS display and units in reports to be consistent across PrecursorResults and Chromatogram values
    • Fixed a null reference when dealing with libraries that have inconsistent ion mobility coverage
    • Fixed errors requiring a restart switching iRT standards in the Edit iRT Calculator form
    • Fixed preserving the original standards in an iRT library when standards are changed with the dropdown list
    • Fixed warning about overwriting changes in an iRT library when none have been made
    • Fixed exception using triggered acquisition if some precursors are missing chromatograms.
    • Fixed unhandled error when importing peak boundaries for document with no result files
    • Fixed issues handling SCIEX Midas data
    • Fixed mProphet model training display to avoid empty space on the left and compressed histograms on the right.
    • Fixed "Bandwidth too small" exception doing a Loess regression if there are not enough peptides in the document.
    • Fixed LOQ determination so that it starts looking from the highest concentration point stops looking once it finds a level that fails the criteria.
    • Fixed Shimadzu method numbering
    • Fixed Ctrl-A to work as select all in the Document Grid even when it is docked.
    • Fixed loading Shimadzu SRM files with just 1 chromatogram.
    • Fixed exception bringing up RT Linear Regression window if there are crosslinked peptides in the document.
    • Implemented a workaround for 32 transition limit on Waters method functions.
    • Fixed handling a couple of novel adduct descriptions seen in the wild, e.g. "(M+H)+" and "(M+H)+[-H2O]", which would normally be written as "[M+H]+" and "[M-H2O+H]+" respectively.
    • Fixed NullReferenceException trying to use Triggered Acquisition in small molecule document.
    • Fixed retention time alignment makes mouse act out of phase on aligned replicate chromatogram graphs.
    • Fixed File > Import Assay Library recognizing sequences surrounded by underscores and preceding N-terminal modifications produced by Spectronaut.
    • Fixed pepXML reader looking for pepXML elements inside <analysis_summary>.
    • Upgraded MethodCreator.dll for Agilent method export.
      • The fragmentor voltage will be set using the voltage from the template method.
      • For proteomics applications, the recommended fragmentor voltage for G6420, G6460, G6470 instrument models is 130.
    • Fixed Panorama server checking for in-house Panorama servers.
    • Fixed tooltips on Molecule Settings form for small molecules.
    • Fixed blank IMS spectrum Full-Scan plot when shown in 2D with filtering on.

Skyline v20.1 Updated on 03/16/2020

  • Finalized Chinese and Japanese translation text
  • Fixed preserving manually set peak boundaries after reimport
  • Fixed Library Match view visibility to require a library or Prosit enabled
  • Fixed undo and audit logging of right-click > Quantitative property setting
  • Fixed command-line import deadlocking race condition
  • Fixed modification redefinition error in Import Peptide Search
  • Fixed major performance issue with lockmass correction in Waters data imports
  • Fixed command-line logic for when files get ignored during import if they have already been imported
  • Fixed Bruker data import failure issues
  • Fixed issue where Transition Settings changes could be overwritten during Import Peptide Search
  • Fixed audit logging of changes to DIA isolation schemese
  • Fixed a null reference when dealing with libraries that have inconsistent ion mobility coverage
  • Fixed exception in the iRT calibration form
  • Fixed exception doing "close all chromatograms".
  • Fixed Import Peptide Search to turn off MS1 filtering if no precursor ions
  • Fixed command-line run length to decimal value instead of an integer

Skyline v20.1 Released on 01/28/2020

  • Prosit spectrum and iRT prediction support directly integrated into the UI
    • Building libraries for targeted peptides in a document through Peptide Settings - Library - Build button.
    • Prosit spectrum prediction viewing in the Spectrum Match plot with new right-click menus, including mirror plotting
    • Settings in Tools > Options > Prosit
  • Support for spectral library building from MS Fragger pepXML search results
  • Support for diaPASEF!
    • We have run this with 2 separate 3-organism datasets through the LFQBench statistical assessment and that works.
  • Improved ddaPASEF and initial prmPASEF support.
  • Performance gains in importing Agilent and Waters IMS data as much as 2x or more.
  • Parallel file import with proteomewide DIA in the UI or by default on the command-line has performance similar to what was previously only available from the command-line using --import-process-count. Choose "Many" on your next import or just ignore threading the next time you import from the command-line.
  • Optimized spectrum memory handling for instrument vendors with .NET data reader libraries, benefitting Agilent, SCIEX, and Thermo
  • A new "Consistency" tab in the Refine > Advanced form, supporting CV and q value cut-offs
  • New checkbox for Refine > Advanced - Results tab Max precursor peak only
  • Support for Multiple Attribute Model (MAM) grouping with Peptide.AttributeGroupID and PeptideResults.AttributeAreaProportion
  • Added File.SampleID and .SerialNumber (of the instrument) as fields in Document Grid custom reports
  • Transitions Settings - Full-Scan - MS/MS filtering has been extended to apply to all non-MS1 spectra (e.g. MS3) as long as the MS1-level precursor matches the target precursor m/z The redundant library filtering phase of spectral library building is around 20x
  • Improved iRT calibration UI making it easy to create new sets of standards based on existing sets that can be used in spectral library building and the Import Peptide Search wizard
  • More iRT improvements including more intelligent use of 80+ CiRT peptides when CiRT is chosen during library building
  • New right-click > Quantitative menu item for changing the Quantitative property on transitions in the Targets view TIC and BPC now come from raw data files and do not need to be extracted from MS1 spectra which has performance benefits for MS1 filtering
  • New global "QC" transitions have been added such as the pressure trace
  • Calibration curve fixes to make ImCal (Isotopolog Calibration Curves) work
  • New "Calculated" annotations have been added which support storing Skyline calculated values in annotations for future use with AutoQC
  • Optional display of spectral library spectrum scores in Spectrum Match, View > Spectral Libraries and in Document Grid
  • Added Spectral library building support from "Assay Library" TSV
  • New View > User Interface menu item in case the user misses the toolbar button
  • New View > Peptides submenu to display modifications in the Targets view text for cases like glycan mods on biologics
  • Support for charged losses on peptide modifications like for glycan mods to monitor precursor - lost, minus charge
  • New option to order by m/z in exported methods/lists for optimized quadrupole switching Restore the ability to insert a transition list of either type when not in mixed UI mode
  • Support KEGG IDs as molecular identifiers in small molecule targets.
  • Improved support for D used in chemical formulae in place of the Skyline default H'
  • Added support for Thermo Exploris and Eclipse instruments
  • Support for opening .skyp files downloaded directly from Panorama
  • New command-line arguments:
    • --version - prints the Skyline[-daily] version information to the console
    • --save-settings - saves and settings changes made during the session (e.g. opening a document may add elements to lists)
    • --tran-predict-ce="<name>" - change the Transition Settings - Prediction - Collision energy setting
    • --tran-predict-dp="<name>" - change the Transition Settings - Prediction - Declusering potential setting
    • --tran-predict-cov="<name>" - change the Transition Settings - Prediction - Compensation voltage setting
    • --tran-predict-opt="<name>" - change the Transition Settings - Prediction - Optimization library setting
    • --import-filename-pattern - selects imported files from directory by a pattern
    • --import-samplename-pattern - selects imported samples from a multi-file WIFF by a pattern
    • --ims-library-res command-line argument for adjusting the library IMS extraction resolving power for testing varying settings on 3-organism mixes
    • --share-zip - fixed from being broken in 19.1
    • --exp-order-by-mz - orders transitions in exported methods/lists by m/z for optimized quadrupole switching
  • Strong versioning in Skyline-daily.exe and SkylineCmd.exe
    • When you hover the mouse over these EXE files in Windows File Explorer the version number is reported in a tip (no longer just 1.0.0.0)
    • The command-line --version argument now always reports a full version, even for a "developer build" including the Git hash for the source control revision on GitHub, and now the version of ProteoWizard, ensuring the pwiz_data_cli.dll can be loaded.
    • The Skyline Help > About form now also includes this full version with Git hash
  • Many smaller bug fixes such as:
    • Spectral libraries from MaxQuant results using spectra from raw data now uses the right spectra
    • Fixed BiblioSpec parser for MaxQuant 1.6.7 mod format
    • Fixed for issue with iProphet and 2H element for MaxQuant
    • Made charge state suffix parsing more flexible to handle the following cases:
      • A series of + or - symbols however long (used to stop at ++++ for positive and -- for negative)
      • Use CultureInfo.TextInfo.ListSeparator (semi-colon in Europe) "; +5" instead of CultureInfo.NumberFormat.NumberGroupSeparator (period, space or apostrophe in Europe) ". +5", " +5", or "' +5"
      • Allow invariant form always ", +5" even when current culture indicates "; +5"
      • Allow the absence of the space in charge states with numbers, i.e. ",+5" or ";+5"
    • Fixed right-click > Order By > Annotation in replicate summary plots
    • Fixed error "Spectrum must have a source file" when doing Import Assay Library tutorial
    • Fixed problem where "batch_name" was not getting written out for replicates.
    • Fixed problem where changing the uniqueness constraint in the Peptide Settings dialog does not result in a new Undo record being created.
    • Fixed error when doing "Export Annotations" if StandardType has been specified for peptides.
    • Fixed error when List has "value list" column type.
    • Exclude peptides from .elib files that do not appear in the "PeptideQuants" table.
    • Fixed missing peak logic when importing with EncyclopeDIA or OpenSWATH results
    • Added support for reading the expect score from Comet pepXML and for using ms2 files for finding spectra of pepXML files.
    • Fixed Tools > Tool Store error message when skyline.ms server is down for maintenance.
    • Fixed controls hidden on Import > Peptide Search form when initiated from the Start page.
    • Fixed problem where Skyline was not acknowledging the isolation windows on MSX scans.
    • Fixed calculation of LOD. It was incorrectly using only using the multiple of the SD of the blank values. It was forgetting to add the mean of the observed values as well.
    • Fixed Precursor Concentration getting blanked out whenever the Peptide Settings changed.
    • Fixed to support a change to the Uniprot interface for querying protein details.
    • Fixed exception when doing "Pick Children" on a small molecule that has two identical precursors.
    • Fixed "Refine > Advanced" max peptide peak rank when there are peptides that only have internal standard precursors and increase maximum peptide peak rank from 10 to 20.
    • Fixed exception that can happen if deselect EmptyNode at bottom of Targets tree while Peak Area Replicate Comparison is shown.
    • Fixed CCS calculation for Bruker data to use 2*N instead of just N.
    • Fixes to improve support for a 1.3 GB Assay Library including a fix to an OutOfMemoryException
    • Fixed progress display of upload to Panorama
    • Fixed Area CV calculation for heavy labeled ratio normalization.
    • Fixed modified peptide sequence text exported from Skyline in .blib spectral libraries to match library builds
    • Fixed unexpected error using Refine > Advanced in small molecule documents with results
    • Fixed renaming a molecule causes miscalculating mass of transition with heavy label adduct
    • Fixed File > Export > Spectral Library losing information from small molecule documents
    • Fixed case sensitivity in library file name extensions

Skyline v19.1 Released on 07/14/2019

This is the 19th official release and the first of 2019. So, for this 10th anniversary realese, we are changing to a year-based version number like many other mature products.

  • New! Small molecule and proteomics UI modes [introduction]
    • And a form that asks for your preferred mode once
  • iRT and Optimization library support for small molecules
  • New! Lists - define lists of values in multiple columns and associate them with elements in your documents through annotations. [documentation]
    • See Document Settings – Lists
  • Batch calibration – [documentation]
  • Import > Peptide Search with an existing library (including EncyclopeDIA .elib files)
  • A new MS/MS filtering Acquisition method named "DDA" which sets all fragment ions to non-quantitative and does not truncate MS1 chromatograms the way "Targeted" (or PRM) does.
  • Edit > Refine became a top-level Refine menu between Edit and View and got reorganized for ease-of-use.
  • The Document Grid "Views" menu has been changed to "Reports" to better align with File > Export > Report and Document Settings - Reports
  • Added Actions menu to the Document Grid to enable bulk peak removal based on filtering
  • New command-line help for SkylineRunner/SkylineCmd available with --help argument and Help > Documentation > Command Line in Skyline
  • Command-line support for Refine > Advanced options
  • Command-line support for setting precursor charge states, fragment charge states and fragment types
  • Moved some explicit parameter values like CE from precursor to transition level
  • Audit log improvements to support working with Panorama and tampering detection
  • Building a library from MaxQuant msms.txt now attempts to find the original spectrum source files and use the spectra in them to avoid using charge state deconvoluted spectra, but allows the user to override this default if the spectrum source files cannot be found
  • A new <Edit current...> choice in the dropdown lists in Edit > Modify Peptide to make updating specified modification definitions easier
  • Improved handling of common background proteome building problem where user tries to open or create the FASTA file causing it to be overwritten by an empty PROTDB file
  • Changed File > Share default to "Complete" instead of "Minimal"
  • Add "PeptideResult.ModifiedAreaProportion" which is the normalized area of the PeptideResult, divided by the sum of the other NormalizedAreas for all of the other PeptideResults in the same replicate and protein that have the same unmodified sequenceAdded new Transition.LossFormulas field
  • Allow grouping by built-in properties such as "concentration" in addition to annotations in peak area graph
  • Many smaller bug fixes such as:
    • Fixed to support C-terminal modifications in MaxQuant msms.txt
    • Fixed library building for PeptideShaker results
    • Fixed to add the .wiff2 extension to File > Import > Results form
    • Fixed to support File > Export > Method for Thermo Altis
    • Fixed to allow package installation for R external tools (like MSstats) in China
    • Fixed for calibration curve text exported to report CSV files on Chinese and Japanese systems
    • Fixed library building from paths with extended characters
    • Fixed for spectral library building of Peaks mzIdentML/MGF export
    • Fixed library building support for ProXL cross-linked peptides with PTMs
    • Added support for radioactive 14C labeling as C"
    • Added support for deuterium as D and H' and tritium as T and H"
    • All elements in the periodic table now allowed in chemical formulae
    • Fixed for q value cut-off advanced option in group comparison definition form
    • Fixed to apply chromatogram transformation to non-quantitative chromatograms to match quantitative chromatograms
    • Fixed for invalid precursor transitions after changing Full-Scan settings
    • Performance improvement for importing large small molecule transition lists
    • Fixed to Support new variant of retention time specification in NIST .msp library format
    • Fixed audit log saving to use write and rename to avoid log truncation
    • Fixed audit log enabling to create undo records and be more persistent
    • Fixed to handling of invalid adduct specification
    • Fixed to small molecule persistence with multiple keys
    • Fixed undo/redo of setting standard type
    • Fixed problem where modifications with negative mass cannot be found in iRT database (reported by Anatoly, thanks to Nick)
    • Updated UIMFLibrary DLLs to version 3.6.6
    • Fixed library build support for reading MaxQuant fixed peptide-N/C-terminal modifications
    • Fixed parsing of pS/pT/pY variant of phospho mods from MaxQuant
    • Fixed issue parsing PLGS final_fragment.csv modifications with paren’s in the mod name
    • Fixed problem with implicit modifications not being included in "Modified Sequence" column in Document Grid
    • Fixed importing report layouts from a .skyr file
    • Fixed reading Shimadzu QTOF files that also open with the QQQ reader DLL
    • Change SCIEX centroiding to multiply Y (area) values by 100 to make the numbers more similar to profile extraction (requested by SCIEX)
    • Fixed Area CV histograms to ignore precursors with no chromatograms rather than Calculating... forever
    • Fixed to continue importing chromatograms when iRT regression fails as long as chromatogram extraction is not dependent on it

Skyline v4.2 Updated on 04/08/2019

Skyline v4.2 Updated on 01/08/2019
Skyline v4.2 Released on 11/01/2018

  • AUDIT LOGGING - yes, really [documentation]
  • New Figures of Merit section in Peptide Settings – Quantification tab
    • New LOD and LOQ fields in reports
    • New display in Calibration Curve plot
  • New calibration features
    • Regression fit = Linear in Log Space
    • Single-replicate calibration with isotope labeled standards for system suitability
    • Added Sample Dilution Factor field to Replicates in Document Grid for dilution of a sample to bring it within the linear dynamic range
  • Support for importing OpenSWATH results through File > Import > Peptide Search - DIA wizard [details]
  • Support for using integration boundaries and peak scores from OpenSWATH and EncyclopeDIA
  • Drift time predictor training from Use Results fixed for small molecules
  • Instrument support improvements:
    • Agilint - support for negative ion mode QqQ data
    • Bruker - timsTOF support for PASEF, All Ions, and PRM
    • SCIEX - support for new SCIEX WIFF2 file format & clearer method export, CE and DP settings
    • Shimadzu - support for 9030 Q-TOF and 8045 QqQ
    • Thermo - support for Thermo FAIMS, GC-MS, Tune v3+ compatibility, and faster raw file reader DLL
    • Waters - advances in SONAR and CCS calibration and importing data from UNIFI server
  • Settings > Integrate All no longer affects Precursors.TotalArea nor other quantitative metrics. At last, it is just visual.
  • File > Import or Export > Annotations for importing or exporting annotations values directly from or to a CSV file
  • New command-line support
    • --import-document = File > Import > Document
    • --import-annotations = File > Import > Annotations
    • --share-zip = File > Share
    • --import-all-files = File > Import > Results of all files in the directory specified, but not subdirectories
    • --import-all[-files] and --import-replicate-name together to import multiple files into a new replicate
    • --reintegrate-exclude-feature = unchecking feature in mProphet model
  • New library build support
    • Mascot error tolerant searches and PASEF searches
    • MassIVE mzTab
    • MetaMorpheus mzIdentML
    • Crux Percolator pepXML
    • PEAKS pepXML/mzXML export when scans are out of order
    • Proteome Discoverer ExpectationValue support and pdResult files with multiple workflows
    • MaxQuant deuterium labeling modifications and results lacking Labeling State column
  • Added new iRT standard mix RTBEADS
  • Added ability to separate CVs in Peak Areas > CV Histogram by precursor or fragment ions in mixed MS1 and MS/MS documents
  • Added Plot Type > Residuals to Retention Times > Alignment view
  • Faster volcano plot updates and format filtering peptides by protein attributes
  • Mouse centered zooming added to some graphs that did not yet have it
  • Edit > Delete of transitions removes matching transitions in matching reference precursors
  • Edit > Refine > Advanced new option to remove peptides without a matching spectrum
  • Added find support for report link columns with text display
  • Increased maximum fragment charge state to 20 for whole protein MS/MS
  • Increased custom molecule maximum mass from 100 KDa to 160 KDa
  • Added a new copy button in the lower-left corner of message boxes to make it clearer that form contents can be copied as text
  • Many smaller bug fixes such as:
    • Fixed problem reading Thermo raw files that have scans with multiple precursors.
    • Fixed "use results" on "Edit Drift Time Predictor" form to pay attention to whether "Use high energy offset" is checked. If it's not checked, then always use 0 for the high energy offset.
    • Fixed problem where matching chromatograms to transitions does not pay attention to m/z match tolerance and double counts transitions.
    • Fixed ion mobility lookup in spectral libraries to support high precision modifications.
    • Fixed bug where documents containing the adduct "[2M+H]" cannot be opened.
    • Fixed "Remove Peak" behavior when chromatograms showing more than one file.
    • Fixed performance and background updates for Retention Times - Regression view
    • Fixed to editing small molecules with MS1 precursors that resulted in document corruption
    • Fixed to allow unchecking "Intensity" in an mProphet scoring model
    • Fixed to improve performance in a document with 500 replicates
    • Fixed to improve graphs restoring their visible state in the absence of a .view file
    • Fixed performance for large iRT libraries
    • Fixed a bug where libraries were disregarding modifications when returning retention times
    • Fixed matching spectra in SCIEX Midas data to precursors with modifications, especially heavy labeled
    • Fixed problem where a mixed polarity .raw file can result in an error about the number of times not being equal
    • Fixed obscure Thermo scanfilter parsing issue with a negative SID
    • Fixed case where ModifiedSequence would display the wrong mass if there were two modifications on the same amino acid
    • Fixed unexpected error trying to use Centroided extraction from Waters data acquired in centroid mode
    • Fixed small molecule PrecursorIonFormula vs. PrecursorNeutralFormula in small molecules with isotope labeling
    • Fixed issue with neutral loss transitions not matching spectral libraries during a settings change
    • Fixed to keep fragment ion transitions from matching chromatograms extracted from MS1
    • Fixed error message for file access denied from "Win32 Error 5" to something more helpful
    • Fixed issue with importing transition lists containing O" or 17O
    • Fixed for Waters data import to allow both centroiding and lockmass correction
    • Fixed small molecule transition list reader when Transition Settings precursor and fragment mass types are different
    • Fixed small molecule transition list import where the product columns are left empty to imp[y that the precursor is the ion of interest for this row
    • Fixed excessive memory use building a background proteome
    • Fixed issue with chromatogram extraction from mixed polarity raw data files
    • Fixed protein annotation using Uniprot to keep up with changes in their interface
    • Fixed command-line to import all samples from a multi-sample WIFF file

Skyline v4.1 Release Updated on 6/19/2018

Skyline v4.1 Release Updated on 2/18/2018
Skyline v4.1 Released on 1/11/2018

  • Improved small molecule support [detail slides]
    • Support for NIST and self-built (from SSL format) small molecule spectral libraries with fragment annotation
    • Neutral molecules with multiple precursor adducts
    • Improved support for pasting small molecule transition lists with column headers
  • Bruker TIMS support that parallels IMS support for other vendors
  • A new Document Grid pivot editor and saved report layouts [detail slides]
  • Improved Import Peptide Search wizard for DIA with DDA for the mProphet workflow
  • File > Import > Assay Library makes importing Assay Library files easier than File > Import > Transition List
  • More performance improvements (memory use and speed) for large-scale DIA data processing
  • Interactive volcano plots for group comparisons with custom formatting [detail slides]
  • Interactive peak area CV histogram plots [detail slides]
  • High precision modification delta-mass support past a single decimal place
  • Points across the peak and manual integration adjustment visualizations in chromatogram plots [detail slide]
  • New line plot modes for summary (Replicate and Peptide Comparison) plots
  • Synchronized zooming available in summary (Replicate and Peptide Comparison) plots
  • New Import Results common prefix and suffix removal UI with real-time replicate name display
  • New delete button (red X) on the Document Grid
    • allows deletion from the Targets View (proteins, peptides, precursors and transitions)
    • filter and delete.
  • Possible to rename replicates from Document Grid (including copy-paste) with "Replicate Name" field
  • New "Exclude From Calibration" column on PeptideResult
  • New Quantitative column on Transitions [detail slides]
  • New non-blocking background population of Document Grid with full support for chromatogram values (times, intensities, mass errors) in Live Reports, both interpolated and raw values
  • New Edit > Integration menu with shortcuts for Remove Peak and Apply Peak to All
  • Display an informative warning when iRT calibration fails during import
  • Improvements for library building from peptide search formats which do not support probability cutoffs to make sure they get ordered correctly
  • Many other fixes...

Skyline v3.7 Release Updated on 9/10/2017

Skyline v3.7 Released on 6/12/2017

New features include:

  • Extensive performance improvements in speed and memory use for proteomewide, label-free DIA and DDA data processing
    • If you have the hardware, Skyline should be able to use up to 100% CPU and 100% of your memory. Though we continue working on making it do more with less.
    • Performance improvements in very large DIA (6,000,000 transitions x 20 files)
    • Convergence detection in mProphet modeling and 10 iteration maximum (down from 30)
    • New --import-process-count=[num] and --import-theads=[num] arguments for SkylineRunner. The former can yield up to 10x import performance improvement on a 24-core NUMA server and 2-4x on a standard i7.
  • Reduced .sky file size by 70% for large (over 1000 transitions) files
  • Multi-peptide peak area graph
  • Customizable color schemes
  • Import isolation scheme feature from DIA data files
  • Improved iRT calibration from DDA data directly into spectral libraries
  • Storing raw chromatograms in SKYD files. This is a big one which also gives us:
    • View > Transform > Interpolated (F12) shows the chromatograms as Skyline used to show them
    • View > Transform > None (Shift+F12) shows the raw uninterpolated chromatogram
    • Skyline can now always show in Full-Scan graph every spectrum from which chromatograms were extracted. Previously interpolation could cause spectra to be skipped
    • A new report value TransitionResults.PointsAcrossPeak
    • File > Share can now create document archives in 3.6 format for sharing to Skyline 3.6
  • File > Export > Spectral library for exporting targeted results as a spectral library for your next experiment
  • Support for semi-cleavage enzymes in Peptide Settings - Digestion tab
  • Support for Associate Proteins checkbox in View > Spectral Libraries with background proteome for nonspecific cleavage
  • Run-to-run retention time correlation graph
  • New file details (score type, score cut-off, unique peptides and spectra) in Spectral Library Explorer source file details form.
  • Support BLIB files with StartTime and EndTime in the RetentionTimes table
    • Allowing external tools to provide their own peak detection and picking
    • Times are used for peak integration boundaries without further peak detection
    • Faster imports and smaller resulting files
  • File > Import > Peak Boundaries 2-10x faster
  • Add Total Ion Current Area under Results.File in reports/Document Grid
  • Add "Equalize Medians" as normalization method in Peptide Settings / Quantification for large exploratory experiments where most targets are not changing
  • Improved paste performance in the Document Grid
  • Column tips and reference help in the Live Report view editor
  • New SkylineDailyCmd.exe in same folder as Skyline-daily.exe with same command-line interface as SkylineRunner.exe, but runs Skyline in a single process, useful for ZIP-file or Administrator installations where these EXEs are placed in easily located paths
  • Proteome Discoverer 2.2 support in spectral library builder
  • Improved support for SCIEX Midas workflow
  • Improved support for Agilent IMS workflow
  • Improved handling of importing modified peptide sequences with SCIEX 3-letter modification abbreviations
  • Export transition list feature for mixed polarity small molecule documents to allow exporting different polarities separately
  • Various other fixes such as:
    • Use of .NET API to encrypt passwords for Panorama and Chorus stored by Skyline in its user.config file.
    • Fix to z ion mass calculation, which was off by one hydrogen atom
    • Fix to View > Mass Errors > Replicates graph to match colors with other replicate graphs when MS1 and MS/MS XICs are present
    • Fix y axis scaling in chromatograms which had problems when IDs or Predicted annotations were present and scale was less than 100
    • Fix tracking of changes to iRT standards to better match changes to documents
    • Fix to avoid removing iRT standards when Edit > Refine > Advanced minimum transition count is higher than they contain
    • Fix to keep from duplicating spectrum source files - especially problematic for iRT training - in spectral libraries when a DDA file is searched twice
    • Slightly more tolerant peak grouping which allows undetected peaks to be added to the group based on chromatogram correlation over the integration boundaries.
    • Fix precursor matching with SRM data in fringe case where the precursor m/z is worse, but transition matching is better
    • Fix error message reporting missing required columns in File > Import > Peak Boundaries
    • Fix to "Unable to sort because the IComparer.Compare() method returns inconsistent results"

Skyline v3.6 Release Updated on 2/21/2017

Skyline v3.6 Released on 11/7/2016

New features include:

  • Improved results import:
    • Parallel multi-file results import (in user and command-line interfaces)
    • New results import interface for improved unattended imports
    • Greatly improved import performance for Skyline documents on network drives
  • Calibrated quantification improvements:
    • Surrogate standards for normalizing to explicit non-homologous molecules
    • Remove point right-click option in calibration curve graph
    • Explicit Global Standard Area added to replicates for explicit global normalization control with values like TIC
  • Group comparison additions and fixes to improve consistency with MSstats
  • New Detection Q Value and Detection Z Score report columns for mProphet scored peak picking
  • New Peak Rank By Level report value and Targets view showing separate peak rankings for MS1 and MS/MS transitions
  • Peptide uniqueness constraint added to Peptide Settings - Digestion tab (by protein, gene or organism)
  • New Edit > Refine > Associate Proteins for adding protein associations for targeted peptides after they have been added to the targets list
  • Ability to choose which modifictions to use when showing a library in the Spectral Library Explorer
  • New and improved plots:
    • Mass error plots (replicate and peptide comparisions and 1D and 2D histograms
    • Multi-peptide retention time plot
    • Point set selection in retention time regression plot
  • Improved small molecule support:
    • Improved support for negative ion mode
    • Improved chromatogram matching for molecules with identical precursor m/z but different scheduled retention times
    • Parsing of chemical formula with adduct syntax in Edit > Insert > Transitions
    • Support for small molecule transition list import with Edit > Paste, File > Import > Transition List, external tools and with command-line
  • Improved Transition Settings for Full-Scan
    • Centroided extraction with mass error tolerance made default, based on improvement seen with Thermo, Sciex and Bruker instruments
    • New high-selectivity extraction option (1/2 extraction width) for extraction from profile spectra, based on improvement seen with Termo and Sciex raw data files
    • Easier import of existing data with improved isolation schemes based on raw data
    • Fixed support for importing from instruments using different high- and low-resolution between MS1 and MS/MS
  • Ability to include ambiguously matched spectra in spectral libraries build by Skyline
  • Improved support for iRT:
    • Support for more iRT standard mixes
    • Automatic adding of iRT standard targets to document
    • More flexible iRT regression support (allowing 80% of standards at 0.995 correlation)
    • CiRT support
  • SkylineRunner command-line interface improvements:
    • Command-line support for importing transition lists and assay libraries
    • Command-line support for exporting isolation lists
    • Command-line support for adding decoy peptides
    • Improvements made to support AutoQC
    • mProphet model generation output to console log
  • Initial support for Sciex MIDAS data
  • Initial support fixes for Waters SONAR data
  • Fix for File > Save As bug that disabled Edit > Refine > Re-import
  • Many other smaller bug fixes

 

Skyline v3.5 Release Updated on 1/24/2016

Skyline v3.5 Released on 12/1/2015

New features include:

  • Calibrated quantification (a.k.a. absolute quantification) [see tip]
  • Impressive performance improvements for large full-scan data sets (DIA and DDA)
  • Many longer operations made much faster and showing progress form allowing cancel
  • Chromatogram extraction from centroided scans using mass accuracy in PPM (Peptide Settings - Full-Scan tab, using Centroided mass analyzer)
  • Improved small molecule support:
    • Support for negative polarity ions
    • Support for multiple ions per precursor, including isotope labeling
  • SkylineRunner command-line improvements supporting processing pipelines from raw data to Panorama uploads
  • Improved assay library and transition list import with better modification guessing
  • Full support for Panorama AutoQC system suitability run processing
  • Support for building spectral libraries from DIA-Umpire search results
  • Ability to include report templates in document with Document Settings
  • Fill Down function available on Document Grid right-click menu
  • Delete-key clears cells in Document Grid
  • Apply to All for faster manual correction of multi-replicate peak picking
  • Compensation voltage optimization for Sciex instruments with SelexION
  • Default Sciex SWATH isolation schemes and abilitly to export Sciex isolation lists
  • Automated drift-time training for Agilent and Waters IMS Q-TOF instruments
  • Lockmass correction for Waters Q-TOF data
  • Export directly to instrument methods for Shimadzu QqQ instruments
  • Many display improvements:
    • Peak area and background shading of selected transition
    • New residuals plot in Retention Times > Regression graph
    • Keep ID annotations from being hidden by chromatograms
    • Improved dotp display in Peak Areas plot
    • Option for strict scientific notation for intensity y-axis on plots
    • Graph text scaling based on right-click > Properties for all graph text

 

Skyline v3.1 Release updated on 4/13/2015

Skyline v3.1 Released on 3/16/2015

New features include:

  • Integrated Group Comparison support (see images below). Get started with:
    • View > Group Comparisons > Add
    • Settings > Document Settings - Group Comparisons tab
    • Tutorial coming soon...
  • Support for custom ions / small molecule targeted MS
    • Use Edit > Insert > Transitions - Small molecules to start a Skyline small molecule document
    • Watch Skyline Tutorial Webinar #4 - Preview of Small Molecule Support
  • Cloud chromatogram extraction from full-scan data with Chorus
  • New wizards for importing peptide searches with PRM and DIA data sets
  • Direct filtering of Document Grid views
  • Support for iRT scores in chromatogram libraries from Panorama
  • Faster start-up and file open and save progress
  • Fully enforced light-heavy ion matching and Find form support for "Mismatched transitions"
  • Improved optimization library support

 

Skyline v2.6 Release updated on 2/8/2015

Skyline v2.6 Release updated on 10/27/2014
Skyline v2.6 Released on 9/22/2014

New features include:

  • Full-Scan spectrum view for chromatograms extracted from full-scan data, with heat-map graph for IMS data
  • New Skyline start page for faster access to common start scenarios and tutorials
  • Ion mobility drift time filtering for Agilent and Waters TOF instruments
  • Optimization library support for storing optimized CE values
  • Custom fragment ion support for defining non-peptide-backbone fragments (like iTRAQ, TMT, etc.)
  • Support for isotope labeling experiments (like SILAC) without standards
  • Support for Shimadzu triple-quadrupole instruments
  • Improved chromatogram peak picking
  • Import of tabular "assay library" format
  • Support for protein details information (accession number, gene name and preferred name) queried from internet sites
  • DIA isolation scheme viewer
  • Option to exclude transitions within the DIA isolation window for the precursor

 

Skyline v2.5 Release updated on 7/10/2014

Skyline v2.5 Release updated on 5/5/2014

With:

  • Chinese and Japanese translations

Skyline v2.5 Released on 2/8/2014

New features include:

  • Live Reports - interact directly with Skyline documents through a grid interface with
    • Customizable column display
    • Sort and filter
    • Direct paste to annotation values
    • Text search
    • Much faster report generation than the original Custom Reports
  • Improved peak scoring and picking
    • Improved default peak picking
    • Integrated mProphet scores and semi-supervised learning model training
    • Edit > Refine > Reintegrate form for applying non-default peak scoring and picking models
    • Peak q value assignment
    • Model training and evaluation interface
  • Global standard type assignment
    • Right-click > Set Standard Type to assign Normalization and QC standard types
    • New icons to display iRT, Normalization and QC standard types in Targets view
    • New ratio values for peptides, precursors and transitions to global standard types in Peak Areas graph and reports
    • All global standard peptides measured in every method of multiple method documents
  • Fully integrated Tool Storeuser interface
    • Tools > Tool Store form for reviewing and installing External Tools without leaving Skyline or manually downloading files
    • Update notifications for new tool releases
    • Tools > Updates form for automatic updates to installed tools
  • Multi-peptide chromatogram graphs - use protein selection or multiple selection (shift- or ctrl-click) to see annotated chromatogram peaks for many peptides at once
  • Improved support for Scheduled Extraction of chromatograms from full-scan mass spectra
  • Improved File > Import > Peptide Search wizard
  • Thermo raw file import support on systems with European number format settings

 

Skyline v2.1 Released on 9/8/2013

New features include:

  • Support for building chromatogram libraries on Panorama and using them in Skyline
  • File > Import > Peptide Search wizard for DDA data quick start
  • Mass accuracy metrics for high resolution full-scan data
  • TIC and base peak chromatograms from MS1 survey scans
  • Installed support for Bruker TOF data, with improved performance
  • Demultiplexing of overlapped DIA/SWATH methods
  • Improved External Tool integration (see the list of available tools)
    • Install from file (Tools > External Tools - click Add button, and choose From File)
    • Automatic R installation
    • Automatic Python installation
    • Support for MSstats with new GUI form [download]
    • Support for QuaSAR with new GUI form [download]
  • Direct pasting into the Results Grid (especially useful for replicate annotations for external tools)
  • Fix to be able to distinguish peptides with the same precursor m/z in MS1 filtered data
  • Improved memory performance for large full-scan imports
  • Enhanced results data import progress interface with peak graph
  • Split chromatogram graphs for simultaneous viewing of light and heavy transitions, and precursor and product ions
  • Alignment by iRT scores in graphs
  • Improved integration with PanoramaWeb
  • Save and restore of Targets View expansion and selection state
  • Several spectral library builder fixes, including support for larger libraries and new search pipelines:
    • PEAKS pepXML/mzXML
    • MSGF+ pepXML/mzXML
  • File > Import > Peak Boundaries for importing peak selection from other tools
  • File > Export > Chromatograms for exporting chromatogram points

 

Skyline v1.4 Release Updated on 3/18/2013

With:

  • Support for building spectral libraries from Proteome Discoverer MSF
  • Support for building spectral libraries from MaxQuant Andromeda msms.txt

Skyline v1.4 Release Updated on 12/17/2012

With:

  • Support for building spectral libraries from PRIDE XML

Skyline v1.4 Released on 11/12/2012

New features include:

  • Bruker TOF support [details]
  • Export triggered MRM (a.k.a. iSRM) transition list support (Agilent and Thermo instruments)
  • Peak picking based on retention time alignment of MS/MS IDs for MS1 filtering
  • Improved retention time alignment features for MS1 filtering
  • Support for publishing Skyline documents to Panorama targeted proteomics repository web sites (server software currently in beta, available early 2013)
  • Support for MS1 filtering from SIM scans
  • Customizable Tools menu (EXE, Batch and Web site) with macro and custom reports as inputs and command-line customization for installers
  • Replicate custom annotations, e.g. Concentration, Case/Control, SubjectId, etc.
    (see the updated Existing and Quantitative Experiments tutorial pp. 30-35)
  • Replicate comparison graphs grouped by replicate annotations
  • Renaming of FASTA sequences (direct edit and Edit > Refine > Rename Proteins)

 

Skyline v1.3 Release Updated on 8/12/2012

Skyline v1.3 Released on 6/20/2012

New features include:

  • Advanced support for data independent acquisition (DIA) across vendors:
    • AB SCIEX SWATH™
    • Agilent DIA
    • Thermo DIA & Multiplexed DIA
    • Waters MSe™
  • Isolation list export for Thermo Q Exactive and Agilent TOF instruments
  • 64-bit version with higher memory limits
  • Retention time alignment for MS1 filtering
  • MS/MS retention times in built libraries for more peptide ID pipelines
  • Auto-refinement for selecting best responding peptides
  • Improved handling for high charge peptides
  • Auto-detection of modifications in the Spectral Library Explorer
  • Decoy peptide and transition generation for FDR based peak picking

 

Skyline v1.2 Release Updated on 3/27/2012

Skyline v1.2 Released on 2/15/2012

New features include:

  • Integrated display of MS/MS peptide ID spectra in MS1 chromatograms
  • Peak picking in MS1 chromatograms based on MS/MS peptide ID retention times
  • New isotope dot-product score on MS1 full-scan filtered peaks, and expected relative isotope abundance in peak area plot and reports
  • More accurate retention time prediction with integrated iRT Calculator support
  • Command-line interface for running Skyline operations in automated scripts on instrument control computers
  • Faster MS/MS library loading
  • Improved memory performance for full-scan chromatogram extraction
  • Improved full-scan method export for Thermo LTQs, including support for Accurate Inclusion Mass Spectrometry (AIMS)
  • Full-scan method export for AB SCIEX Q-TOFs, including support for AIMS
  • Data import support for Thermo Q-Exactive
  • Data import support for Waters Synapt G2-S
  • Spectral library build support for iProphet and Protein Prospector pepXML
  • New enhanced Find with Find All
  • Unexpected error form with button to report the issue
  • Manage results, minimize for reducing chromatogram data size in final documents

 

Skyline v1.1 Release Updated on 8/8/2011

Skyline v1.1 Released on 6/11/2011

New features include:

  • Import results from WIFF files much improved (50-fold faster for large scheduled runs - thanks to AB SCIEX)
  • Full-scan MS/MS ion chromatogram extraction
  • Full-scan MS1 multiple isotope ion chromatogram extraction
  • Full-scan method export for Thermo LTQ
  • Import document with multiple documents and support for merging results
  • Integrated support for Unimod modification definitions
  • Modification auto-detect support for pasted/inserted annotated peptide sequences
  • Native method export for AB SCIEX QTRAP
  • Native method export for Agilent 6400 Series
  • Spectral library build support for Scaffold, Waters MS^e and OMSSA
  • Improved Edit / Find in the Peptide View
  • Larger text sizes in the peptide tree view
  • Multi-select annotation editing
  • Multiple color annotation indicators
  • Improved scheduling for multi-replicate documents
  • Variable modification and neutral loss detection in transition list paste/insert/import
  • Peptide filter expression support for matching modifications
  • New bulk refinement operations
  • Replicate acquired time in reports and replicate plot ordering
  • New summary plots

 

Skyline v0.7 Release Updated on 3/30/2011

Skyline v0.7 Release Updated on 2/7/2011
Skyline v0.7 Release Updated on 10/30/2010
Skyline v0.7 Release Updated on 10/5/2010
Skyline v0.7 Released on 9/15/2010

New features include:

  • Variable modifications
  • Neutral loss product ion transitions
  • Native Waters file import support installed
  • Spectral Library Explorer
  • Multiple heavy label types
  • Multi-select copy-paste (text, HTML formatted, and Skyline document to Skyline document)
  • Peptide view enhancements (multiple selection, peptide modification highlighting, etc.)
  • Spectral libraries built from Protein Pilot results
  • Analysis support for fractionation replicates
  • Synchronized zooming of multiple chromatogram graphs
  • Copy data from graphs to re-plot with your favorite graphing package
  • Data import performance improvements for Agilent, AB Sciex and Thermo
  • Improved international system settings support

 

Skyline v0.6 Release Updated on 7/7/2010

Skyline v0.6 Release Updated on 5/21/2010

Now with native WIFF file import support installed.

Skyline v0.6 Release Updated on 4/21/2010
Skyline v0.6 Release Updated on 4/2/2010
Skyline v0.6 Released on 3/17/2010

New features include:

  • Improved automatic peak integration
  • Collision energy optimization
  • Peak area charts
  • Peptide summary charts
  • Manuscript ready charts
  • Results grid with per replicate annotations
  • Custom annotations
  • Auto-refinement dialog box
  • SpectraST library support
  • Unique peptides view with a Background Proteome
  • Improved support for document sharing
  • Summary result statistics in reports
  • Waters instrument native method export

 

Skyline v0.5 Release Updated on 11/8/2009

Skyline v0.5 Released on 9/24/2009
Skyline v0.5 Preview Updated on 8/14/2009
Skyline v0.5 Preview Updated on 7/7/2009

Skyline v0.5 Preview Released on 5/30/2009

The core focus of v0.5 is analysis of result data, building on the successful method creation features of v0.2. Our ASMS 2009 poster gives a broad overview of how we are using these features to extend the scope of our targeted proteomics research at the MacCoss Lab.

New features include:

  • Scheduled and unscheduled transition list support for instruments from:
    • Agilent
    • Applied Biosystems
    • Thermo Fisher
    • Waters
  • Import of results data for instruments from:
    • Agilent (native)
    • Applied Biosystems (native)
    • Thermo Fisher (native)
    • Waters (native with MassLynx 4.1 installed)
    • All of the above converted to mzML or mzXML
  • Share methods and results across labs with different instruments, using Skyline's high-performance, compact data caching
  • Build your own spectral libraries from Mascot and X! Tandem search results
  • Multiple sample replicates, and multiple replicate import
  • Chromatogram plotting with dynamic layout for multi-replicate viewing
  • Peak detection and advanced peak picking
  • Peak quality indicators
  • Isotope labeling ratios
  • Advanced peak integration editing
  • Dynamic report designer
  • Retention time analysis views:
    • Linear regression
    • Replicate comparison
    • Scheduling

 

Skyline v0.2 Released on 2/17/2009

Skyline is a Windows client application for building Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) methods. It aims to employ cutting-edge technologies for creating and iteratively refining SRM methods for large-scale proteomics studies. The latest version of Skyline contains support for:

  • Full featured SRM method editing
  • Transition list export for Thermo Finnigan TSQ and ABI Q-Trap
  • Retention time prediction
  • Isotope labeling
  • Spectral libraries (NIST, GPM, BiblioSpec)
  • Building spectral libraries from your results in TPP pepXML/mzXML

Skyline edits its own universal method format document (saved in XML), and can export transition lists for a variety of instruments. For large, un-refined methods these may be multiple lists per document.




Tutorials


[Chinese] [Japanese]

Try one of these tutorials, and get hands-on experience using Skyline with real data.

Introductory

 

Full-Scan Acquisition Data

 

Small Molecules

 

Advanced Topics

Custom Reports (33 pages)
Audit Logging (23 pages)

 

ETH Course Tutorials 2016 & 2018 (Skyline SRM/PRM/DIA + MSstats + mProphet tutorials with exercises)
SRM Course ETH Targeted Proteomics Course



教程 (中国语文)


[英语] [日语]

请选择尝试这些指南,以获得对实际数据运用Skyline软件的实际操作经验。

介绍性的

 

 


全扫描采集数据

 


小分子

 


高级主题

绝对定量 (19 页)

 

更多即将推出!




靶向 方法编辑





靶向方法优化





分析分类研究的数据





处理已有定量实验数据





MS1 全扫描筛选





针对 MS1 筛选的 DDA 搜索





并行反应监测 (PRM)





非数据依赖型采集





SWATH 数据分析


Navarro, Nature Biotech 2016 基准论文为依据,使用为指示说明而创建的三物种混合数据集,获得从 Q Exactive 或 TripleTOF 仪器中采集的数据独立采集 (DIA) 数据的实际操作处理经验。对 DIA 使用“导入肽段搜索”向导以根据 DDA 数据构建谱图库,期间对保留时间校准进行自动 iRT 校准,并对肽段峰值检测采用 mProphet 学习模型。采用“保留时间”、“峰面积”、“质量精度”和 CV 等丰富的 Skyline 摘要图评估数据质量。最后进行群组比较,并对通过数据获取每个物种预期比率的效果进行评估。(31 页)

 Thermo Q ExactiveSCIEX TripleTOF



Q Exactive SWATH 数据分析





TripleTOF SWATH 数据分析





小分子目标





小分子方法开发与 CE 优化





小分子定量





绝对定量





自定义实时报告





iRT 保留时间预测





チュートリアル(日本語版)


[英語] [中国語]

これらのチュートリアルでは,実際のデータを用いた解析をご自身の環境で経験いただくことができます。

入門編

 

フルスキャン測定データの解析


小分子タ

 

上級者向け

絶対定量 (21ページ)

他の内容は近日公開する予定です!




ターゲットメソッドの編集





ターゲットメソッドの最適化





によるグループ研究データの処理





既存データ処理および定量実験





MS1フルスキャンフィルタ





MS1 フィルタ用 DDA 検索





併発反応モニタリング(PRM)





DIA、データ非依存性解析





SWATHデータの分析


Navarro, Nature Biotech 2016のベンチマークとなる論文に基づいて、装置用に作成された有機体3種の混合データセットを使用し、Q ExactiveまたはTripleTOF装置のいずれかより取得したデータ非依存性取得(DIA)データを利用する実務経験を積みます。保持時間校正向けの自動iRT校正でDDAデータからスペクトルライブラリと、ペプチドピーク検出のmProphet学習モデルを構築するDIAには、ペプチド検索のインポートウィザードを使用します。保持時間、ピーク領域、質量精度、CVを含むSkyline概要プロットの豊富なコレクションを使用してデータ品質を評価します。最後に、グループ比較を実行し、各有機体で予想される比率をデータがうまく取得できたかを評価します。 (35ページ

 Thermo Q ExactiveSCIEX TripleTOF



Q Exactive SWATHデータの分析





TripleTOF SWATHデータの分析





によるターゲットメタボロミクス解析





小分子メソッド開発とCE最適化





小分子の定量化





絶対定量





カスタムレポートとライブレポート





iRT保持時間予測





Targeted Method Editing





Targeted Method Refinement





Processing Grouped Study Data





Existing and Quantitative Experiments





MS1 Full-Scan Filtering





DDA Search for MS1 Filtering





Parallel Reaction Monitoring (PRM)





Basic Data Independent Acquisition





Analysis of DIA/SWATH Data


Get hands-on experience working with a data independent acquisition (DIA) data, from either a Q Exactive or a TripleTOF instrument, using a 3-organism mix data set created for instruction, based on the Navarro, Nature Biotech 2016 benchmarking paper. Use the Import Peptide Search wizard for DIA to build a spectral library from DDA data with automatic iRT calibration for retention time calibration and an mProphet learned model for peptide peak detection. Assess the data quality using a rich collection of Skyline summary plots including Retention Times, Peak Areas, Mass Accuracy, and CVs. Finally, perform a group comparison and make your own assessment of how well the data capture the expected ratios for each organism. (32 pages)

 Thermo Q ExactiveSCIEX TripleTOF



Analysis of Q Exactive DIA/SWATH Data





Analysis of TripleTOF DIA/SWATH Data





Analysis of diaPASEF Data





Small Molecule Targets





Small Molecule Method Development and CE Optimization





Small Molecule Multidimensional Spectral Libraries





Small Molecule Quantification





Hi-Res Metabolomics





Absolute Quantification





Custom Reports





Advanced Peak Picking Models





iRT Retention Time Prediction





Collision Energy Optimization





Ion Mobility Spectrum Filtering





Spectral Library Explorer





Audit Logging





ETH Targeted Proteomics Course Tutorials


In 2016, members of the Aebersold lab at ETH, Zurich - with help from CRG, University of Washington, Purdue and Biognosys - presented the last week long course on targeted proteomics with SRM, PRM and DIA to 30 participants. During the course, the participants worked through 9 tutorials with follow-up exercises. This material has been made freely available on the Targeted Proteomics Course web site, providing a great resource to anyone interested in learning more about Skyline method editing and data processing (8 Skyline + MSstats + mProphet tutorials)

[go there] (2016)

Targeted Proteomics CourseETH Targeted Proteomics Course

* - written on Skyline v3.5

You can also watch the presentation videos.


In 2018, many of the same instructors with some new additions presented the second week long course on DIA/SWATH for proteomics to 50 participants. That course included new tutorials and lectures aimed at teaching DIA/SWATH data processing and use in proteomics research, with some very nice examples using Skyline. You can download them form the same location.

[go there] (2018)

DIA/SWATH CourseETH DIA/SWATH Course

* - written on Skyline v4.1

You can also watch the DIA/SWATH Course presentation videos.




Videos


Watch one of these instructional videos for a quick start using Skyline in your targeted proteomics experiments.  Although these three videos were recorded in 2009 and refer exclusively to the Skyline SRM support, they still provide a good bit of useful information about Skyline and how it may be used in setting up targeted proteomics experiments, even when using full-scan mass spectrometers.  For a more complete overview what you can do with Skyline, please refer to the Skyline tutorials.

Learn more about creating SRM/MRM methods in 28 minutes.

Video Demo Video Demo 1

Learn more about results analysis and method refinement in 25 minutes.

Video Demo Video Demo 2

Learn more about importing existing experiments and isotope labeled reference peptides in 27 minutes.

Video Demo Video Demo 3

Watch the Skyline trailer video

Video Trailer Video Trailer



Video 1: Method Editing


Try the Targeted Method Editing tutorial, and get hands-on experience.

The Camtasia Studio video content presented here requires a more recent version of the Adobe Flash Player. If you are you using a browser with JavaScript disabled please enable it now. Otherwise, please update your version of the free Flash Player by downloading here.

Download the full video for faster access to repeat viewing.

* - recorded using Skyline v0.2




Video 2: Results Analysis


Try the Targeted Method Refinement tutorial, and get hands-on experience.

The Camtasia Studio video content presented here requires a more recent version of the Adobe Flash Player. If you are you using a browser with JavaScript disabled please enable it now. Otherwise, please update your version of the free Flash Player by downloading here.

Download the full video for faster access to repeat viewing.

* - recorded using Skyline v0.5 Preview




Video 3: Existing & Quantitative Experiments


Try the Existing and Quantitative Experiments tutorial, and get hands-on experience.

The Camtasia Studio video content presented here requires a more recent version of the Adobe Flash Player. If you are you using a browser with JavaScript disabled please enable it now. Otherwise, please update your version of the free Flash Player by downloading here.

Download the full video for faster access to repeat viewing.

* - recorded using Skyline v0.5 Preview




Video: Trailer


The Camtasia Studio video content presented here requires JavaScript to be enabled and the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player. If you are using a browser with JavaScript disabled please enable it now. Otherwise, please update your version of the free Adobe Flash Player by downloading here.

Created by Alex MacLean



Webinars


The Skyline Team is excited to continue its tutorial webinar series designed to help you get the most out of Skyline targeted proteomics software. Now with nineteen sessions completed, Skyline Team members spend most of the time in these webinars explaining what the software is capable of and how best to use it to answer your research questions.

Each webinar has its own page (linked below) containing a recording of the webinar and all related information. The webinar recordings are about 90 minutes long with the last 30 minutes dedicated to Questions and Answers from the attending audience. Additionally, each webinar page contains the presentations, supporting tutorial data, written answers to the Q&A sessions and other related information. Even the most experienced Skyline users are likely to learn something new.

2024

 

2023 & 2021

 

2020 & 2018

 

2017 & 2016

 

2015

 

2014

 




YouTube Channels


Visit Skyline's own YouTube Channel for content from recent UW courses as well as Skyline-related instructional content from courses offerered at other institutes:




Tips





Terminology Cheat Sheet


At the recent Targeted Proteomics Course at UW 2014, participants claimed that the many terms we have in mass spec proteomics with exactly the same meaning made the course much more difficult to follow.  They requested a glossary or cheat sheet that might help them translate between these various terms.  Here it is:

SRM - Selected Reaction Monitoring (sometime confused as Single Reaction Monitoring - no such thing).  Common synonym MRM (Multiple Reaction Monitoring).  Performed on triple-quadrupole instruments, where the instrument cycles through a pre-specified set of precursor m/z (Q1), product m/z (Q3) pairs called 'transitions', using the quadrupoles as filters (usually 0.5 to 1.0 m/z range).  Cycle time is determined by the sum of the dwell times of all transitions in the set.
MRM - Multiple Reaction Monitoring, a synonym for SRM created and trademarked by AB SCIEX, but extremely popular because of early popularity of AB Q TRAP instruments for performing this method.
scheduled-SRM = scheduled-MRM = dMRM = dynamic-MRM - In order to allow measuring a greater number of transitions in a run, transitions are specified with start and end times (or retention times and windows) to allow the instrument to measure each transition for only a fraction of the entire gradient.  Cycle time at any given time is determined by the sum of the dwell times of all transitions being measured at that time.
iSRM = intelligent-SRM = triggered-SRM = triggered-MRM = tMRM - In order to gain more confidence in the correct identification of a chromatogram peak in SRM without overly sacrificing quantitative throughput, the instrument measures a set of primary transitions, as in normal SRM/MRM until the intensity on those transitions exceeds some threshold.  When the threshold is exceeded, the instrument takes one or more measurements of a secondary set of transitions usually used only for peak identity confirmation, and not quantification. 

Targeted MS/MS = tMSMS = PRM = MRM-HR - Like SRM, but performed on a full-scan instrument (ion-trap or Q-TOF).  The instrument cycles through a pre-specified set of precursor m/z values, using quadrupole or ion trap isolation as a filter (usually 1.0 to 2.0 m/z range) and collects a full MS/MS fragment ion spectrum for each.  Cycle time is determined by the sum of the dwell/accumulation or scan times of all scans in the set.  Software is used to extract chromatograms from the resulting MS/MS spectra.  If the spectra are high-resolution, then extraction can be done using 50-100pm range, making it more selective than SRM.  Common synonyms PRM (Parallel Reaction Monitoring), MRM-HR (HR = High Resolution), pSRM (Pseudo Selected Reaction Monitoring).

MS1 [Full-Scan] Filtering - Chromatograms are extracted from the MS1 scans of normal DDA (Data Dependent Acquisition) data.  Because of the semi-random sampling approach, for MS/MS, of DDA, it is not possible to extract product ion chromatrams (time, intensity) with meaningful peaks for quantification.  Chromatogram-based quantification from DDA runs is limited to extracted ion chromatograms from the MS1 survey scans of such runs.  Common synonym Label Free Quant.

DIA = SWATH = HRM - Data Independent Acquisition is a technique where ranges of precursor m/z are isolated and subjected to fragmentation in a consistent pattern over cycles of time.  In this way a mass spectrometer can be set up to gather fragment ion spectra for large regions of precursor m/z space, independent of the actual precursor ions being fragmented, which may include fragments for multiple precrusors in any given scan.  Software can be used to extract product ion chromatograms from the acquired MS/MS spectra.  Cycle time is determined by the sum of the dwell/accumulation or scan times of all scans in the set.  (e.g. 20 ranges x 10 m/z = 200 m/z total range, 30 ranges x 20 m/z = 600 m/z total range)
SWATH - Popular synonym for DIA coined in Gillet, et al. MCP 2012, but also trademarked by AB SCIEX, originally specified as 32 x 25 m/z ranges covering 400 - 1200 m/z.
HRM - Hyper Reaction Monitoring, less common synonym for DIA/SWATH.
MSe - Type of DIA where ions are collected without prior filtering in alternating low- and high-energy scans (all precursors and fragments of all precursors respectively), coined and trademarked by Waters.  Common synonym All-Ions DIA.




Installing Skyline





Recovering From a Broken Installation


If you know your current release is out of date, but Skyline has not asked to upgrade after two restarts, you should first try simply manually installing again from the web page over the top of your existing installation. If this does not work, read on.

At times a Skyline installation may become so broken that you cannot install a new release over the top of your existing installation.  In this case, you will need to find the Skyline installation files on your computer, save your Skyline settings, and then either uninstall or potentially even delete the Skyline files before you can re-install and subsequently restore your settings.  This tip will walk you through doing just that.

Finding and Saving Your Settings

First, you need to find your Skyline installation.  On Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you first want to find the folder:

C:\Users\brendan\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0

On Windows XP, it will be something like:

C:\Documents and Settings\brendan\Local Settings\Apps\2.0

If you are unable to find either the AppData (Windows 7 and Vista) or the Local Settings (Windows XP) folder, you may need to do the following in Windows Explorer:

  • Press Alt+T, O to open the Folder Options form.
  • Click the View tab.
  • Under the Hidden files and folders item, click the Show hidden files and folders option.
  • Click the OK button.

You should now be able to see the necessary folder in Windows Explorer.

To save your Skyline settings before removing the Skyline files, do the following:

  • Use Windows Explorer to search within the Apps\2.0 folder for the file 'user.config'. (Starting at C:\ will be a very long search!)
  • If you find more than one, look at the Date Modified and In Folder fields to determine which is the most recent under a folder beginning with 'skyl..'.
  • Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, click the mouse cursor on the file and drag it to your desktop.

Now you have a copy of your Skyline settings on your computer desktop.

Removing Skyline From Your System

The next thing you should try is to simply uninstall Skyline, using the Control Panel ("Uninstall a program" in Windows 7 & Vista, and "Add/Remove Programs" in Windows XP).  If the uninstall fails, then you have no option but to clean up manually.

Before attempting to delete your Skyline installation, you should expand the folders below the '2.0' folder, so that you seem something like the folder tree shown in the image below:

Skyline installation folders

If your '2.0' folder looks much the same as the one above, then you can simply delete the entire '2.0' folder now, but be very careful with this option, as you may have other software in here.  If you see any differences, delete only the folders beginning in 'skyl..'.

Re-installing Skyline and Restoring Settings

You have removed Skyline from your system.  After restarting the system, try again to install Skyline from the Skyline web site or stand-alone installers.

After you have installed successfully, close the Skyline window.  Then again find the 'user.config' under '2.0', belonging to a folder beginning with 'skyl..' and copy the user.config you saved to your desktop over the top of the new user.config, which will contain only the default settings.

You should now be able to start Skyline and see that your settings have been preserved, and continue working with Skyline as normal.




Recovering the .sky File Extension Association


If you end up in a state where you can no longer double-click in the Windows Explorer on .sky or .skyd files and have Skyline open the files for you, do the following:

  • Run regedit.exe and delete the following keys if any are present (they may not all be)
  • Delete the keys HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sky and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.skyd
  • Delete the keys HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.sky and .skyd
  • Delete the keys HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Skyline.Data.0 and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Skyline.Document.0
  • Reboot your computer
  • Wait for an update or reinstall Skyline (see also Recovering From a Broken Installation)

Thanks to Stack Overflow for this entry:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6489112/clickonce-deployment-file-association-not-registering




Running Skyline TeamCity Artifact Builds


To download a TeamCity artifact for a feature or bugfix that will be integrated into Skyline (if a developer has provided you with a link, simply download SkylineTester.zip and skip to the next section):

  • Find the relevant pull request on GitHub: https://github.com/ProteoWizard/pwiz/pulls
  • If the TeamCity builds have not been run, wait for them to run.
  • Click the "Details" link for the "Skyline master and PRs (Windows x86_64)" build.
  • Click the "Artifacts" tab.
  • Click "SkylineTester.zip" to download.

Running the build:

  • Extract the contents of the SkylineTester.zip.
  • Run the extracted executable "SkylineTester Files\Skyline-daily.exe". No installation is necessary, because Skyline is a side-by-side exectuable and will find necessary files relative to the location of the executable.



Small Molecules





Automatic Precursor Isotopes


Skyline can automatically add [M+1], [M+2], etc isotopes to your Targets tree if you provide molecular formulas in your transition lists. Here are some things to know about that.

When you first import a transition list, Skyline will only show the most abundant isotope for precursors in the Targets window.

If you want to see others, there are a few settings that need to be adjusted in Transition Settings (via the Skyline Settings > Transition Settings... menu):

  • In the Filter tab, make sure the Ion types field includes the letter 'p' to indicate that you want to work with precursors.
  • In the Instrument tab, make sure the Min m/z and Max m/z values are suitable for the precursor m/z values you are interested in.
  • In the Full Scan tab, make sure the Isotope Peaks value is set to something other than None.

Note: in Skyline versions 21.2 and earlier, even if you have these values preserved in your settings from a previous run you may have to visit the Transition Settings and make a slight change to your settings to provoke the creation of the additional precursor nodes in the Targets window. It doesn't matter which setting, and you can change it back again afterward, but this is necessary to reevaluate the contents of the Targets tree.




UI Modes


Skyline was built from the ground up as a proteomics targeted mass spec research tool. By popular demand, Skyline’s support for more general biomolecular mass spectrometry research has steadily increased over the past several years.

Unfortunately until the Skyline 19.1 release the user interface remained proteomics-centric. Non-proteomics researchers had to think “molecule” while seeing “peptide”, and it wasn’t always easy knowing which parts of the UI didn’t apply to your work. This was especially true for new users.

But now, Skyline adjusts its user interface according to the kind of molecules you're working with.

For full details continue reading the attached PDF.




Adduct Descriptions and Small Molecule Labels


Ionization in Peptides vs Ionization in Small Molecules

Skyline assumes protonation for peptides so we can simply speak about "charge" or "charge states". For generalized molecules, we have to think about all kinds of ionization so we speak in terms of "adducts". Adduct descriptions may also specify isotope labels applied to the neutral molecule description. As such, "adducts" are similar to the idea of "modifications" in the peptide regime. 

Describing Ionizing Adducts

Skyline uses the defacto standard notation for ionizing adduct descriptions, as found at the Fiehn Lab's MS Adduct Caclulator and the GNPS Spectral Library. This notation has a few major parts:

Usually beginning with a left brace "[",

then an optional  dimer/trimer/etc specification e.g. the "2" in "[2M+H]",

then an "M"

then an optional isotope label specification e.g. the "2C13" in "[M2C13+Na]",

then the chemical formula of the adduct,

then a closing right brace "]",

and an optional charge declaration, e.g. the "1-" in "[M+Cl]1-".

The charge declaration is useful if you are describing an adduct that is not in common use, as Skyline will use that instead of any (possibly mis-)calculated charge.

Describing Labeled Versions of Molecules for Quantification

For quantification of heavy/light pairs, Skyline expects to see a single molecule with heavy and light adduct descriptions. For example you might describe the light ion as having adduct [M+2H] and its heavy counterpart as having adduct [M4D+2H] (double protonated, and four H replaced by D). Here is a transition list describing that scenario:

Molecule,Precursor Formula,Precursor Adduct
Caffeine,C8H10N4O2,[M+H]
Caffeine,C8H10N4O2,[M4D+H]

The important point is that it describes a common molecule with distinct adduct descriptions, one of which includes labeling information.

Simple Examples

Singly protonated: [M+H]

Doubly deprotonated: [M-2H]

Sodiated: [M+Na]

N-Mer Examples:

Sodiated dimer: [2M+Na]

Deprotonated trimer: [3M-H]

Isotopic Label Examples

Sodiated, and two carbons per molecule replaced with C13: [M2C13+Na]

Sodiated, and two carbons per molecule replaced with C13, and three nitrogens replaced with N15: [M2C133N15+Na]

Charge-Only Examples:

Often transition lists are presented as m/z values with integer charges only, and the actual mode of ionization can not be inferred. In these cases we just give an integer charge value.

Unknown ionization mode, charge = 1: [M+] or [M+1]

Unknown ionization mode, charge = -2: [M-2]

Charge-Only Examples with Isotope Labels Described Only by Mass:

Sometimes a transition list indicated different precursor m/z values for the same named molecule, Skyline reads this as an isotope label of unknown formula, and expresses the mass shift as a number.

Unknown ionization mode, charge = 1, and mass shift due to unknown isotopes of total mass 5: [M5.0+]

 

 

 




Getting lists of data out of Skyline


The Document Grid and Custom Reports are the way to get lists of data out of Skyline.




Pivot Editor


The pivot editor lets you combine rows in the Document Grid, and perform aggregate operations on them such as "Mean" or "StdDev".

 

Here are some examples of how to use the Pivot Editor.




Document Grid Number and Date Formats


The Document Grid allows you to specify formats for columns that contain numbers or dates, or other formattable data types.

To set the format of a column, right-click on it and choose "Number Format...".

The "Choose Format" dialog allows you to specify a custom format string.

Microsoft provides documentation for custom number format strings and date format strings.

If you want to save your formatting choices with your custom report, you can use the "Remember Current Layout..." menu item, which is on the Group/Total button next to the Reports dropdown on the toolbar at the top of the Document Grid.

 

When a report is exported for external tools, the format used for all numeric columns is always the round-trip format ("R"), which provides the full precision possible for the numeric values. This is the format that is used if you choose "Invariant" as the language when exporting a report at "File > Export > Report".




Skyline Lists


Skyline 19.1 added new feature "Lists" which allows you to add arbitrary lists of data to a Skyline document.




Result File Rules in Skyline 20.2


Skyline 20.2 will have a new feature called "Result File Rules" which allow you to automatically set annotations and other properties by matching parts of the result file names.

[pdf]




Hierarchical Clustering (and PCA Plots) in Skyline-daily


Skyline version 21.1 will include hierarchical clustering features.

 

These features can be accessed from the Document Grid, as well as Group Comparison grids.




DIA (Data Independent Acquisition)





Generating an Overlapping Window Isolation List using Skyline


(This tip relates to Skyline v 4.2 or later.)

This is a quick demonstration on how to use Skyline to generate an overlapping-window isolation window list suitable for acquisition using the approach described in this manuscript and downstream computational demultiplexing.

To begin this demo, start with a blank Skyline document: 

  • From the Skyline landing page, click Blank Document

  • On the Settings menu, click Transition Settings and in the Transition Settings dialog box, click the Full Scan tab.

SkylineFullScan 

  • Under MS/MS filtering, click the Acquisition method dropdown and select DIA. 
  • For the Isolation scheme, select Add ...

 SkylineAddIsolation

  • In the Edit Isolation Scheme dialog, enter a name for the Isolation scheme such as '20mz_overlap' and then click the Prespecified isolation windows radio button.  

SkylineIsolationScheme 

  • Click the Calculate ... option and enter parameters for the method.  
  • Enter '500' for Start m/z.
  • End m/z is '500'.
  • Window width should be '20'.
  • Be sure that Deconvolution is set to Operlap and that Optimize Window Placement is checked.

SkylineCalculationIsolation

  • Click OK to close the Calculate Isolation Scheme dialog and OK to close the Edit Islation Scheme window.
  • Click OK once again to close the Transition Settings dialog.
  • From the main Skyline menu, select File and then Export.  From the flyout menu, click the Isolation List ... option. 

SkylineExport1

  • In the Export Isolation List window, select the appropriate instrument (for this example, 'Thermo Q Exactive') and choose a file location in which to save the list of isolation windows.

SkylineExport2 

The resulting isolation list contains the isolation centers of each isolation window in the order that they should be acquired. NOTE: the isolation centers will need to be regenerated using this approach if any of the other acquisition parameters such as isolation width or m/z range covered are changed.





Full Spectrum Demultiplexing of Overlapped DIA Windows using MSConvert


(This tip relates to Skyline 4.2 and later.)

This is a quick demonstration on how to use MSConvert to generate a demultiplexed dataset from an input datafile(s) containing spectra with overlapping data independent acquisition windows. In the case of the overlapped window approach described in this manuscript, the output from MSConvert will contain twice as many spectra as the input (two demultiplexed spectra are generated from each acquired MS/MS spectrum). This tutorial uses MSConvert distributed with ProteoWizard version 3.0.18328 with vendor libraries downloadable here: http://proteowizard.sourceforge.net/download.html

 

  • Open MSConvert and select the Browse option to select the input overlap-multiplexed files.  
  • Select the SIM as spectra option.

msconvert1

 

  • OPTIONAL: Change the output format for the file using the Output format drop-down menu. This tutorial outputs mzML.
  • Add a Peak Picking filter to the data by selecting the options indicated below and clicking the Add button below the Filters section:

msconvert2

This causes the MS2 data to be centroided prior to demultiplexing, which is currently a requirement for full-spectrum demultiplexing using MSConvert. If the data were acquired with centroiding enabled, this step will have no effect and demultiplexing will proceed as expected.

 

  • In the Filters section, add a Demultiplex filter with optimization set to Overlap Only  with the settings shown below. 
  • Click the Add button.

msconvert3

 

Note that the mass error may need to be adjusted depending on instrument platform. The mass error should be set to the maximum error expected in m/z measurement of the same analyte in subsequent spectra. Note that this measurement is of expected deviation of a measurement from spectrum to spectrum, not its deviation from the correct theoretical m/z (mass accuracy).

  • Click Start to output demultiplexed files.





Import OpenSWATH Results


NEW! in Skyline 4.2: You can now import OpenSWATH results either from TSV or OSW file into Skyline for data visualization and beginning the targeted method refinement process.

See the PowerPoint slides attached below and watch the video from the ETH DIA/SWATH course:




Slides Explaining Data Independent Acquisition


Powerpoint slides with useful information on the fundamentals of Data Independent Acquisition (DIA) are provided below.

Introduction to Data Independent Acquisition

DIA Method Design

DIA Data Analysis

Future Directions of DIA

Please note that these slide decks are incomplete because slides containing unpublished data have been removed.  If you would like the full slide deck for your personal use, or would like to use some of these slides in your own presentation, please contact the MacCoss Lab at: info@maccosslab.org

Additional material on DIA:

DIA Tutorial

DIA Methods for Thermo Q Exactive

DIA Webinar




DIA Methods for Thermo Q Exactive


The attached mini-tutorials explain how to set up DIA methods for the Thermo Q Exactive instrument:




Quantification


Calibrated quantification (a.k.a. absolute quantification) has been added to Skyline in version 3.5. We plan on extending documentation of this feature in the future in a number of ways:

  1. Updating the existing Absolute Quantification tutorial
  2. Writing a new tutorial on calibrated quantification that covers all of the available applications
  3. Including a detailed demonstration of the functionality in a future webinar

Until this work can be completed, however, you can find attached to this page a set of PowerPoint slides which hopefully provide enough of a rough overview of what is now possible that anyone interested can at least get started with the new functionality.

Also, the Skyline Tutorial Webinar #12 gives some initial coverage on this feature near the end of the recording (and in presentation slides).




Normalization Methods


Skyline offers many different ways to perform normalization.

These are normalization options that may be available at "Settings > Peptide Settings > Quantification":

  • None

    The normalized area is the sum of the transition peak areas of all of the transitions whose Isotope Label Type is not an Internal Standard Type specified at "Settings > Peptide Settings > Modifications"

  • Equalize Medians

    The unnormalized area is divided by the median transition peak area in the result file and multiplied by the median of the median peak areas across all of the result files. The median peak area for each result file can be found in the "Median Peak Area" column in the Document Grid. The peak areas that contribute to the median are:

    • The peak area of every MS2 transition
    • The Total Area MS1 of every precursor
  • Ratio to Global Standards

    The unnormalized area is divided by the sum of the peak areas in the Result File for all of the peptides or molecules whose Standard Type is "Global Standard". If the "Explicit Global Standard Area" value has been set in the Document Grid then that value is used instead of the actual sum of peak areas

  • Total Ion Current

    The unnormalized area is divided by the Total Ion Current Area for the Result File. When extracting chromatograms from full spectrum data, Skyline sums the intensities in the points that correspond to MS1 spectra in the Total Ion Current chromatogram.

  • Ratio to <Isotope Label Type>

    The sum of the transition peak areas from the other isotope label type is divided by the sum of the transition peak areas from the normalization isotope label type.

    The behavior of this normalization method depends on whether "Simple precursor ratios" is checked at "Settings > Peptide Settings > Quantification". If "Simple precursor ratios" is checked then all of the transitions contribute to the peak area sums. If "Simple precursor ratios" is unchecked then Skyline matches transitions between the two label types and only transitions which can have a peak area in both label types are included.

In addition, the normalization method for a particular peptide or molecule can be overridden by setting the value in the "Normalization Method" column in the Document Grid. In that column one can also choose the normalization method "Ratio to Surrogate <XXXX>". For more information see the Surrogate Standards tips page.

When defining a Group Comparison or when looking at the Peak Area graph in Skyline one can choose the normalization method "Default". This normalization method means to apply the default normalization method but also includes the MS Level that might have been chosen at "Settings > Peptide Settings > Quantification".




Batch Calibration


Skyline 19.1 allows you to specify the "Batch Name" on replicates so that different replicates will use a different set of external standards.

See the attached PowerPoint to see how to use this feature.




SureQuant and Triggered Acquisition


SureQuant Tutorial (posted May 9, 2022)

To learn more about using Skyline with SureQuant take a look at this tutorial. Here is the supplemental data for the tutorial.

Triggered Acquisition Setting

As of Skyline-Daily 20.1.1.83, Skyline-Daily has support for "Triggered Acquisition" methods.

A Triggered Acquisition method is one where the mass spectrometer has been told to begin collecting MS2 scans for one analyte when the mass spectrometer sees particular transitions for a different precursor.

This will enable Skyline to work better with assays such as Thermo's SureQuant Targeted Mass Spec Assay Kits

The Transition Settings > Instrument tab will have a "Triggered Acquisition" checkbox which tells Skyline that there may be large gaps between the points in an analyte's chromatograms.

When Triggered Acquisition is selected, Skyline will detect these gaps and make sure that integration boundaries do not cross these gaps. Also, Skyline will perform no background subtraction when Triggered Acquisition is enabled.

For more information, see the attached PowerPoint.




Surrogate Standards


Sometimes you want to normalize a particular analyte against a different molecule. Skyline supports this with the "Surrogate Standard" feature.

To designate that a molecule can be used as a surrogate standard, right click on the molecule in the Targets tree and choose "Set Standard Type > Surrogate Standard".

You have to use the Document Grid to change the normalization method of the analyte. The "Normalization Method" column is not shown by default, so you need to customize a view in the Document Grid and add that column. You can start by choosing "Peptides" from the Reports dropdown on the Document Grid. Then, choose "Customize Report" and add the "Normalization Method" to the view. The Normalization Method column is under "Proteins > Peptides". (also note the button at the top with the binoculars icon can be used to find columns by name)

If you have surrogate standards in your document, then the "Normalization Method" column will have options of the form "Ratio to surrogate..."

Surrogate External Standards

A new feature first available in Skyline-daily 23.1.1.342 is "Surrogate External Standards"

When a Surrogate External Standard has been specified for a peptide or molecule, the surrogate standard's calibration curve will be used for quantifying the analyte instead of the analyte's calibration curve.

The column appears in the Document Grid as a dropdown where you can choose any of the "Surrogate Standards" in the document:
image
When a Surrogate External Standard has been specified for a molecule, the "Unknown" and "Quality Control" values on the calibration curve will get their values from the original molecule, but all of the other sample types (Standard, Blank, etc.) get their values from the surrogate external standard molecule:




How Skyline Calculates Peak Areas and Heights


Definitions:

  1. Background height: minimum intensity at peak boundaries (the blue line in the image below)
  2. Background area ("Background" in the table below): total integrated area of the minimum of background height and intensity at each point
  3. Peak height ("Height" in the table below): maximum intensity between peak boundaries minus background height
  4. Peak area ("Area" in the table below): total integrated area within peak boundaries minus background area. Area plus background always equals raw area below the curve.

NOTE: Skyline uses points that have been linear interpolated from the raw data onto a uniform interval over the duration of the chromatogram in detecting its peak boundaries and calculating its peak areas. These are also the points Skyline displays in its chromatogram graphs. Skyline uses several types of smoothing (1st derivative, 2nd derivative and Savitzky-Golay) in order to place its automatically calculated peak boundaries. These smoothed curves are available for display in the Skyline chromatogram graphs. Skyline does not, however, use smoothed data in calculating peak areas (or area under the curve - AUC). It always uses the raw interpolated points presented in the unsmoothed graphs.

Example of calculation of peak height and background area:

 

The background area is the rectangle bounded by the background height (blue "125" line) and peak boundaries (gray dotted lines), less the areas of the chromatogram that descend below the background height (light blue areas). You may have noticed that the light blue area at RT=14.55 does not exactly match the shape of the chromatogram: for speed and simplicity the area calculation simply uses the RT of the points to left and right rather than calculating the slope and intercept to get the RT where the chromatogram nominally crosses the background height line. This is a very small discrepancy in most cases.

Skyline graphs this background area information when you select a single transition. You will see the peak area value shaded in red, and the background area shaded in gray. You can place the cursor to the left of the y-axis and use the scroll wheel to zoom in the y-dimension to better inspect the background shading.




Skyline System Requirements


OPERATING SYSTEM:

Skyline is currently developed for Windows 10 and later.

Skyline is tested nightly on 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Skyline was tested nightly on 64-bit Windows 7 until 2/23/2024 when use was below 2%.

Skyline 23.1 is the last major version to support Windows 7.

Skyline discontinued releasing 32-bit builds in 2021 after use fell below 1%. You can still download and install older builds.

Skyline 2.6 was the last version to support Windows XP.

-> All versions of Skyline since 1.4 can be downloaded from "Unplugged" installation pages by clicking "I Agree" and then the "Archive" link.

 

PROCESSOR, MEMORY AND DISK:

There is no minimum requirement, but for performance reasons a large fast hard drive is desirable.  The amount of memory needed depends on the size of your experiments, but 4GB is a good start. Skyline is frequently taught on relatively average modern laptops. But, for larger-scale processing we recommend a more powerful desktop system with dual 24- or 27-inch monitors to take full advantage of Skyline display capabilities.

We recommend modern i7 quad-core processors, running at 3.5 to 4.0 Ghz work well, with 16 to 64 GB of RAM and a fast SSD (e.g. 500 GB) + a spinning HD with more room (e.g. 2 TB).

A modern option as of June 2021 of the type favored by Skyline developers can be found on Amazon:

Dell XPS 8940 Tower Desktop Computer - 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10700 8-Core up to 4.80 GHz CPU, 64GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB SSD + 4TB Hard Drive

For really large-scale projects, like hundreds of DIA or DDA files with many hundreds of thousands of transitions, Skyline now makes effective use of highly multi-processor (NUMA) servers with 192+ GB of RAM. We have been using Dell PowerEdge R630 with 48 logical processors and 192 GB (spec attached - purchased for under $10,000 USD). For best import performance, use SkylineRunner command-line interface with --import-process-count=12 (or similar). Be sure to run tests. Mileage may vary depending on the import file format and disk drive type and speed.

With a large server like this, make sure the power profile is configured for "maximum performance", both in Windows and UEFI/BIOS. (Check Power Options and make sure this is not set to "Balanced", but "High performance" and check with your IT about BIOS settings.)



Parallel Import Performance


Attached to this page you will find a thorough study of how Skyline scales importing large scale DIA data with parallel file import of various file types on either a standard Intel i7 comptuer with 16 GB of RAM versus a Dell PowerEdge with 48 logical processors 196 GB of RAM, using either multiple threads or multiple processes.

General findings include:

  • Multiple process import can scale past mutiple threads in the same process (which we think is related to garbage collection)
  • Only multi-process import can take advantage of the true potential of a NUMA system with 24+ logical cores
  • The difference is much less pronounce on an i7 an may not be worth the effort to go multi-process
  • Many formats pay only a percentage increment for spinning disk versus SSD
  • The mz5 format, otherwise the fastest format to import, has serious problems scaling with parallel file import on a spinning drive

At the time of this writing, only the Skyline command-line interface (presented by SkylineRunner or SkylineCmd) can take advantage of multi-process import by using the --import-process-count argument.




Vendor-Specific Instrument Tuning Parameters


As of release 3.5, Skyline's small molecule support includes the ability to explicitly set many vendor-specific instrument tuning parameters on a per-precursor basis.

The "Insert Transition List" dialog for small molecules now has columns for importing various vendor-specific values such as "S-Lens", "Cone Voltage", "Declustering Potential" and "Compensation Voltage", along with the previously implemented ability to explicitly set "Collision Energy", "Retention Time" "Retention Time Window", "Drift Time", and "Drift Time High Energy Offset". These values can also be modified in the Document Grid.

These values can also be modified in the document grid for peptides (formerly this was only possible for small molecules).

By default S-Lens values are not written: a new checkbox in the Export Method dialog enables this for appropriate Thermo outputs. On the commandline side, there is a new argument "exp-use-s-lens" for this.




Ardia Platform setup and importing a file from Ardia Platform


NOTE: Skyline is compatible only with Ardia 1.1 and is NOT compatible with Ardia 1.0 and we do not recommend installing / attempting to connect skyline to Ardia 1.0 (no compatibility and no support for this specific topology).

Adding an Ardia account to Skyline

An Ardia account can be added before importing a file from Ardia Platform or can be added when first importing a file from the Ardia Platform.

To add an Ardia account before importing a file (one time setup in Skyline):

  • On the Tools menu, click Options

  • Click the Remote Accounts tab.
  • Click the Edit List button.

  • Click the Add button.

  • In Remote Account Details form Account type field choose Ardia
  • In the Alias field, enter an Ardia Username. This is the Ardia Platform username with which you wish to log in to the Ardia Platform. Please note, that a different account might be used by your organization to register Skyline to the Ardia Platform and a different account may be used by yourself to log in to the Ardia Platform. This Alias field is for the Login.
  • In the Server URL field, enter the Ardia Platform Server URL.
  • Check Delete RAW files after importing checkbox if you want this. Otherwise, the file is left on the local file system.
  • Click the Connect button to establish a login session with the Ardia Platform.

 

If the window displays "Log in to Ardia Server" with button "Login", this instance of Skyline is already registered with the Ardia Platform server, so Click here to skip to Login.

Registering a Skyline Instance

NOTE: Not all Ardia accounts have permission to register Skyline with the Ardia Platform server, even though they will be able to sign in to the Ardia Platform and import RAW files from Skyline after registration is complete.

Registration is only required once per Skyline installation for a given Windows User and the Ardia Platform server URL.

  • Click Register Skyline to start registration.

Go to the opened Web Browser tab and sign in to the Ardia Platform.

(if already signed into the Ardia Platform in the default browser, you will not have to sign in again)

 

If the account is not allowed to register Skyline with the Ardia Platform, the following will be displayed:

  • Click View Account to open the Ardia account home page in the browser and sign out of the Ardia account.
  • Click Register Skyline and sign in with an account that can register a client application.

In this case, ask your server administrator to register your Skyline instance.

After Registration is complete the following is displayed:

To use the same Ardia account to sign in with Skyline:

  • Click Go to Login.

Otherwise, to use a different Ardia account:

  • Log out of Ardia Platform in the browser. Click View Account to open the browser with the account home page and then log out.
  • Click Go to Login.

 

Log in to the Ardia Platform 

  • Click on Login

The default browser will open with the Ardia Platform login.

  • Complete the login.

Upon successful login, you will see a confirmation message.

This login session will be retained in Skyline until the Skyline application is closed or the "Logout Ardia" button is clicked.

  • Click Ok in all dialogs back to main window to save this new connection.

 

Importing a RAW file from the Ardia Platform

Assigning Data Explorer privileges in the Users and Roles utility of the Ardia Core Software does not automatically extend to external applications such as Skyline. To ensure proper access control, you must set appropriate restrictions at the folder level in the Data Explorer application. For example, if you want to prevent a user from downloading files from a specific folder, disabling the Download Data privilege in the Users and Roles utility is insufficient. You must also set access permissions directly on the folder within Data Explorer.

For detailed instructions, refer to the "Manage Folder Access" topic in the Ardia Core Software User Guide.

 

  • On the File menu, click Import then Results

Make selections in dialog and click Ok

  • Click Remote Accounts

If there is more than one Remote Account configured in this Skyline instance all the accounts will be listed as shown. Otherwise open the folder/file to download.

  • When have more than one remote account, choose an account to use.

 

If not currently logged into the Ardia Platform since starting Skyline, the browser will open and log into the Ardia Platform.

(If the current Skyline instance has not been registered with the Ardia Platform, that will need to be completed first.)

Then the list of files and folders from the Ardia Platform will be displayed.

Opening a file(s) will download it to the local machine and import it into the current Skyline document.

If the "Delete RAW files after importing" was checked the file will be deleted from the local machine.

 

Further troubleshooting

  1. What happens if an Ardia administrator removes the Skyline installation from the Ardia Platform?
    An Ardia administrator can remove the Skyline registration from the Ardia Platform in the Ardia Client Registration and Management utility.
    This will prevent that Skyline installation from making further connections to that Ardia Platform installation.
    This will not affect any ongoing downloads.
  2. What happens if the User logs out of Ardia in their browser?
    In this case, the User will have to re-login to Ardia if they wish to download any other .raw files from the Ardia Platform to Skyline.
    This will not affect any ongoing downloads.
  3. Where can I read more about the Ardia Platform?
    Official documentation is available at: https://docs.thermofisher.com/p/ardia-platform



Support for Bruker TOF Instruments


Skyline v2.1 introduces fully integrated support for Bruker micrOTOF-Q and maXis series instruments.  The Skyline support for working with full-scan mass spectra has been extended to Bruker TOF instruments, and data acquired with them in several modes:

  • MS1 Filtering - chromatogram extraction from MS1 scans in data dependent acquisition (DDA) experiments
  • Targeted MS/MS (PRM) - chromatogram extraction from MS/MS scans in pseudo-SRM experiments
  • Data Independent Acquisition (DIA) - chromatogram extraction from MS/MS scans acquired in various isolation schemes
    • Consecutive wide windows
    • All Ions - alternating low energy and high energy scans of the entire instrument range

For more information on working with Skyline and Bruker TOF instruments, consult the following resources:

  • HUPO 2012 Bruker Lunch Seminar [PowerPoint][PDF]
  • Targeted Proteomics with Bruker TOF Instruments tutorial [PDF]

The following supporting files may also be useful:

  • Skyline template documents for Bruker TOF data analysis [ZIP]
  • Script for adding retention times to MGF files for peptide searches [Script]



SCIEX Instrument Settings


Attached to this page you will find Skyline settings files created by SCIEX as helpful defaults for the QTRAP and TripleTOF instruments.

To load these settings files into Skyline, perform the following steps:

  • On the Settings menu, click Import.
  • Select one of the .skys files.
  • Click the Open button.

This will add a new menu item to the Skyline Settings menu, either QQQ_QTRAP_Environment or TripleTOF_Environment depending on which file you imported.  To change the settings on your current document, simply choose one of these menu items.  This will change the document settings to the defaults that AB SCIEX has created for their instruments.

 

Note that if you employ explicit tuning parameters such as Explicit Collision Energy or Explicit Declustering Potential these must be absolute values (i.e. positive numbers). When writing transition lists for negative ion mode operation, Skyline will automatically express them as negative values.




Export SRM Methods for a Thermo LTQ


You may know that Skyline documents can be exported to MRM/SRM transition lists for all of the major triple quadrupole instruments available today.  You may even know that Skyline documents can be exported directly to native methods for some of these instruments.  But, Skyline can also export SRM method files for the Thermo-Scientific LTQ.

An ion trap instrument like the LTQ may not have the sensitivity of a triple quadrupole, but you can still use one for targeted proteomics, and you can use SRM on the LTQ as a quality control measure for your liquid chromatography.

While you can export an existing Skyline document to a native LTQ method for SRM, you should be aware of a couple settings before you do.  To prepare your document for use with the LTQ, perform the following steps:

  • On the Settings menu, click Transition Settings.
  • Click the Instrument tab.
  • Check Dynamic min product m/z.
  • Enter the correct value (e.g. 2000) for your instrument into the Max m/z field.
  • Click the OK button.

The first setting will restrict the product m/z values Skyline will allow to being greater than a dynamic minimum, based on the precursor m/z, consistent with the limits the LTQ imposes.  The second setting will restrict both the precursor and product m/z values Skyline allows to be consistent with what your LTQ is calibrated to allow.

If you have done this on an existing document, you should probably review your transitions to be sure Skyline has not removed anything important.  Small product ions may no longer be measurable on the LTQ, which could cause some precursors to contain fewer transitions than you want for your experiment.

If this is a new document, you can now enter the peptides you are interested in targeting as you would normally, understanding that some smaller product ions that you would normally see will no longer be available in the Skyline user interface.

When you are ready to export a LTQ method file for your Skyline document, you must transfer your Skyline document to the instrument control computer for your LTQ instrument, where you will also need to have Skyline installed.  If you are using a complex document involving spectral libraries, you may want to consider using the Share command on the File menu, as described in the tip on Sharing Skyline Documents in Manuscripts.

Once you have your Skyline document open on the LTQ instrument control computer, you are ready to export it to a native LTQ method or .meth file.  To do this, preform the following steps:

  • On the File menu, choose Export, and click Method.
  • Choose 'Thermo LTQ' from the Instrument type list.
  • Click the Browse button beside the Template file field.
  • Browse to a .meth file you will use as a template for all settings other than the m/z values to monitor.
  • Click the Open button in the Method Template form.
  • Choose options in the rest of the Export Method form as you would for exporting a transition list or a TSQ native method.
  • Click the OK button.
  • Enter a name for your method, or root name if creating multiple methods.
  • Click the Save button.
This will create a LTQ method or multiple methods which you can use to make SRM measurements on your LTQ.  Once these are complete, you can import the resulting Thermo .RAW files as you would .RAW files from a TSQ triple quadrupole instrument.

Using SRM for Liquid Chromotography Quality Control on the LTQ

Issues with chromatography can easily go unnoticed on systems performing predominantly shotgun data dependent analysis (DDA).  They can, however, still greatly effect performance, especially if you are hoping to use tools that analyze MS1 scan data for quantification and feature detection.  At the MacCoss lab, we are using SRM methods generated with Skyline to monitor LTQ system performance.  Every tenth run on our LTQ instruments, we inject a known standard mix and measure its abundant peptides using SRM.  We find that measured retention times and peak shapes of known peptides give us increased visibility into system performance of the LTQ.

At present we are injecting the "6 Bovine Tryptic Digest Equal Molar Mix PTD/00001/63" from Michrom Bioresources, Inc., running SRM methods generated with this Skyline document:

Bovine_Mix_QC.sky

Below are examples of Skyline displaying both failing and passing runs on our LTQ Velos. Each QC replicate displayed in Skyline was taken as every tenth injection with the other 9 injections used for normal shotgun MS/MS measurement.

Failing:
In the QC runs shown below, chromatography issues first appear between runs 9 and 12. By QC13, the system is clearly not functioning acceptably.

Passing: In the 33 QC runs shown below, both a retention time drift of about 2 minutes and decreasing intensity are visible, but measurements remain within an acceptable range throughout.




Integration with Other Tools


The Skyline project has implemented integration with many tools and instrument platforms.  Skyline supports building spectral libraries from the outputs of nearly 20 different peptide spectrum matching pipelines.  It exports methods to and imports data from the instruments of 6 different vendors.  And, Skyline integrates with a number of external tools and the Panorama targeted proteomics knowledge base.

Here are two brief tutorials describing how Skyline also integrates with other chromatography-based quantitative tools and information they may produce:

Importing Integration Boundaries from Other Tools
This tutorial covers Skyline support for importing the start and end integration times determined for peptide elution by tools other than Skyline.  You can use this feature to benchmark or visualize the performance of other tools, or simply to incorporate their results into a Skyline-based workflow.

Importing Assay Libraries
Several tools have begun to use enhanced transition lists (with added relative product ion abundance and normalized retention times - iRTs) called "assay libraries".  To better support this format, Skyline will now suggest creating an iRT calculator and a minimal spectral library during transition list import when these extra columns are detected.  Learn what to expect and what to watch out for when using this feature. 




How Skyline Builds Spectral Libraries


Skyline builds spectral libraries using a separate program called BiblioSpec, which has two main components. BlibBuild is called to build the redundant library, which is then filtered by BlibFilter to create the non-redundant library. The BlibBuild page contains information on the various search engines that are supported, along with information about their respective file formats and the scores used with the cut-off value specified in Skyline.

BlibFilter chooses the best spectrum within a group by simply using the one with the best score. If there are multiple spectra tied for the best score, the one with the highest TIC is selected. In the past, BlibFilter chose the spectrum with the highest average dot product when compared to all other spectra within the same group, but this method occasionally produced poor results. A similar method, computing a consensus spectrum and its dot product against the related spectra, also produced inferior results as it sometimes resulted in high-noise spectra being chosen.

Skyline with BiblioSpec supports building libraries from the following peptide spectrum matching pipeline outputs:

Database search Peptide ID file extension Spectrum file extension
*RAW includes vendor formats like RAW, WIFF, .D, etc.
Score Used Notes
Generic SSL .ssl   score column A generic format for encoding spectrum library entries.
ByOnic .mzid .MGF, .mzXML, .mzML AbsLogProb  
Comet/SEQUEST/Percolator .perc.xml, .sqt .cms2, .ms2, .mzXML q-value Percolator v1.17 does not include sequence modification information therefore the .sqt file from the SEQUEST search must be present in the same directory, the directory containing the cms2/ms2 spectrum files, or the current working directory.
DIA-NN .speclib   none No separate spectrum file. In the current implementation, no score is imported from the library, so all spectra are imported.
IDPicker .idpXML .mzXML, .mzML FDR The name(s) of the spectrum file(s) are given in the .idpXML file.
MS Amanda .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzML, .mzXML, .MGF, RAW* q-value  
MSFragger .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzML, .mzXML, .MGF, RAW* q-value  
MSGF+ .mzid, .pepXML .mzML, .mzXML, .MGF, RAW* expectation value  
Mascot .dat   expectation value No separate spectrum file.
MaxQuant Andromeda msms.txt + evidence.txt + mqpar.xml + modifications.xml .mzML, .mzXML, .MGF, RAW* PEP It is possible to use peaks embedded in the msms.txt, but external spectra files are preferred because the embedded peaks are charge deconvoluted. mqpar.xml must be located in the grandparent, parent, or same directory. A custom modifications.xml, modifications.local.xml, or modification.xml can be placed in the same directory as the search results (or specified using the -x option).
Morpheus .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzXML, .mzML q-value The names of the .mzXML files are given in the .pep.xml file and may be in the parent or grandparent directory. Spectra are looked up by index, which is calculated using (scan number - 1).
OMSSA .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzXML, .mzML expectation value The names of the .mzXML files are given in the .pep.xml file and may be in the parent or grandparent directory.
OpenSWATH .tsv   m_score column No separate spectrum file.
PEAKS DB .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzXML, .mzML confidence score The names of the .mzXML files are given in the .pep.xml file and may be in the parent or grandparent directory.
PLGS MSe final_fragment.csv   score column There need not be a . before 'final_fragment'..
PRIDE .pride.xml   various No separate spectrum file.
PeptideProphet/iProphet .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzML, .mzXML, .MGF, RAW* probability score The names of the .mzXML files are given in the .pep.xml file and may be in the parent or grandparent directory.
PeptideShaker .mzid .MGF confidence score  
Protein Pilot .group.xml   confidence score No separate spectrum file.
Protein Prospector .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzML, .mzXML, .MGF, RAW* expectation value  
Proteome Discoverer .msf, .pdResult   q-value No separate spectrum file. Libraries cannot be built from databases that do not contain q-values, unless a cutoff score of 0 is explicitly specified.
Proxl XML .proxl.xml .mzML, .mzXML, .MGF, RAW* q-value  
Scaffold .mzid .MGF, .mzXML, .mzML peptide probability  
Spectronaut .csv   none Spectronaut Assay Library export. No separate spectrum file.
Spectrum Mill .pep.xml, .pepXML .mzXML, .mzML expectation value The names of the .mzXML files are given in the .pep.xml file and may be in the parent or grandparent directory.
X! Tandem .xtan.xml   expectation value No separate spectrum file.

 

Importing Existing Spectral Libraries

Skyline can also directly read existing spectral libraries (without using BlibBuild) including:

  • SpectraST (.sptxt) 
  • theGPM  X! Hunter (.hlf) 
  • Shimadzu (.mlb)
  • Golm Metabolome Database (.msp)
  • NIST (.msp)
  • EncyclopeDIA (.elib)

Working with NIST files

If your library contains spectra for multiple instruments and conditions (e.g. various CE values) it is important to use the NIST-supplied filtering tools to produce a subset of spectra appropriate to your experimental conditions. Each molecule+adduct (or peptide+charge) pair can appear in a .blib file only once, and without thoughtful filtering you will almost certainly produce a .msp file that can't be used by Skyline because it contains more than one instance of a molecule+adduct (or peptide+charge) pair.




ID Annotations Missing with Mascot Search Results


Skyline supports several workflows where the retention time of peptide search identified MS/MS spectra are used to help it pick chromatogram peaks, and for subsequent visual inspection.  The most visible effect of when this extra information is present and usable by Skyline is the addition of ID annotations to the chromatogram graphs, as shown below:

If you build a spectral library or use the Import Peptide Search wizard to import Mascot search results for use with full-scan chromatogram extraction, and find that you do not see ID annotations in your chromatograms as you would expect, the problem most likely originates with the MGF converter you used to create MGF files as input to Mascot.

For Skyline to be able to place an identified spectrum on an extracted chromatogram, it needs two things, beyond the peptide identification itself:

  1. A spectrum source file name that Skyline can match with the data file used to extract chromatograms.
  2. A retention time at which the spectrum was measured.

The spectrum source file name does not need to match exactly with the file specified in the Import Results form.  Skyline uses base name matching, which counts all of the following files as matching:

  • spectrum_source.raw
  • spectrum_source.mzXML
  • spectrum_source.c.mzXML
  • spectrum_source.ms2
  • spectrum_source.mzML

Note also that Skyline completely ignores any path information included with the spectrum source file name. Many converters will include a full path, but this is not necessary, and Skyline will match chromatogram data imported from any path, as long as the file basenames match.

The first place to look for clues on contents of any library is the Skyline Spectral Library Explorer (View > Spectral Libraries).  A library built from search results that contain the necessary information will look like this:

If you click the button beside the Library drop down list, Skyline will display the Library Details form with a list of the spectrum source files from which there are identified spectra in the library:

The most common issue you will see with a Mascot DAT file is that it does not contain spectrum source file information in a format that Skyline can understand.  That format can be traced back to the TITLE lines in your original MGF file.  Thanks to a lack of standardization in this area, a long stream of bug reports has lead to Skyline handling a number of different TITLE line formats, but the most flexible and robust format are:

TITLE=...File: "path/to/file.raw"...

or slightly less robust:

TITLE=...File: path/to/file.raw ...
TITLE=...[path/to/file.raw]

Since the first does not allow spaces in the path, and the second does not allow brackets in the path.  Note again that the path information will be ignored by Skyline in matching with imported chromatogram files, though characters in the path can have a negative impact on parsing of some formats (e.g. spaces in format that relies on a space as a terminal character).

The retention times are provided by RTINSECONDS lines in the MGF like:

RTINSECONDS=3006.0281

Problems in either of these can cause issues that show up like the following Spectral Library Explorer figures:

Issue 1: The TITLE line in the MGF file did not contain a recognizable format (described above) from which the spectrum source file can be parsed, causing the DAT file name to be used instead.  If your DAT file contains the search results for a single file, this can be corrected by simply renaming the DAT file to have the same base name as the data file you will import for chromatogram extraction (e.g. spectrum_source.dat).

Issue 2: The RTINSECONDS line in the MGF file was missing, causing the spectrum RT value to be set to zero.

Issue 3: A time outside the gradient length is shown.  Something has gone wrong with the library builder parsing this file.  You should report something like this to the Skyline team.

Issue 4: Every spectrum has a different source file not representative of files on disk.  Something has gone wrong with the library builder parsing this file.  You should report something like this to the Skyline team.

If you run into any problems like this, we always recommend installing ProteoWizard and using MSConvertGUI to create your MGF files, as shown below:

Note that you must make sure the TPP compatibility check box is checked.

If the MGF converter you used comes from an instrument vendor or professional software company, and you want help communicating with them what is required for full integration with a workflow that includes Skyline, either point them to this page, or post your issue to the Skyline support board.




Share Skyline Documents in Manuscripts


Skyline documents provide the ideal way to share targeted proteomics methods and results as supplementary material in your manuscripts.

Skyline has the following advantages that are not available in any other targeted proteomics software:
  • Open source
  • Freely available and easy to install
  • Vendor-neutral platform for targeted mass spectroscopy investigations of both proteomic and small-molecule data
  • Perform analysis of mass spectrometry data from a range of acquisition techniques such as selected reaction monitoring (SRM), data-dependent acquisition (DDA), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and data-independent acquisition (DIA)
    • Support for SRM instruments from Agilent, SCIEX, Shimadzu, Thermo-Scientific, and Waters
    • Support for full-scan instruments from: Agilent, Bruker, SCIEX, Thermo-Scientific and Waters
  • Human readable XML document format
  • Compact, high-performance, easily shared data cache file format

Once you have created a Skyline document (.sky) and its companion data cache file (.skyd), your entire method and acquired results can be easily shared with other researchers. You are guaranteed that others will have freely available and rich access to your method design and results data.
To create a sharable ZIP file that includes:
  • Skyline document (.sky)
  • Skyline data cache file (.skyd)
  • Skyline display information (.sky.view)
  • Either all used spectral libraries or the fraction used by the document (.blib & .redundant.blib)
  • The backgound proteome file (.protdb - optional)

Simply perform the following steps in Skyline:
  • On the File menu, click Share.
  • If the document uses spectral libraries or a background proteome:
    • Click the Minimize libraries radio button to share only the library spectra used in your document.
    • Click the Store everything radio button to share the libraries and background proteome files as they exist on your system
  • Enter the file name of your choice in the File name field (or accept the default).
  • Click the Save button.
You now have a compact file that can be shared publicly or upon request with any manuscript in which your methods and data are included.

Your readers will have open access to:
  • View your methods and data in Skyline's rich visual environment
  • Export transition lists or methods for their own instruments
  • Export custom reports for deeper analysis of your data


You can also share the report template(s) you found most useful in analyzing your data by doing the following:
  • On the Settings menu, choose Document Settings, and click the Reports tab.
  • Check the checkboxes beside the names of the reports you wish to share.
  • Save the document.
This will result in the selected reports getting embedded in the .sky XML file. When the file is opened on another computer the reports will automatically get imported making it easy for readers to repeat your analysis on the systems in their labs, with their own samples.

Sharing Skyline results on Panorama Public

Sharing Skyline documents associated with manuscripts is made easier with Panorama Public, a centralized, community resource of published results processed with Skyline. Panorama Public facilitates viewing, sharing, and disseminating results contained in Skyline documents via a web-browser. In addition to viewing results in the Panorama interface, Skyline documents published to Panorama Public can be downloaded in their original form and opened with Skyline for an in-depth exploration.

Submitting Skyline results to Panorama Public involves:
  • Getting a free project for your lab on PanoramaWeb, which is a server repository that is used by several laboratories and organizations to store their Skyline-processed data
    • Click here to request a new project
  • Uploading and organizing Skyline documents within sub-folders of a project on PanoramaWeb
  • Submitting data to Panorama Public
    • Click here for step-by-step documentation
    • Click here for a more detailed tutorial

Data submitted to Panorama Public can be private initially while the manuscript is under review. A reviewer account is provided to the submitter. When the manuscript is accepted for publication data is made public.

Panorama Public is a member of the ProteomeXchange Consortium which is a group of repositories dedicated to the standardized submission and dissemination of proteomics data worldwide. Proteomics data submitted to Panorama Public that fulfills all of the ProteomeXchange requirements is assigned a unique ProteomeXchange accession that can be included in the manuscript. Published data associated with a ProteomeXchange ID is made available to a wider research community via the ProteomeXchange portal and can be searched on the portal with the unique PXD accession number assigned to the data.

Skyline and Panorama Public help you give the proteomics and small molecule research cummunity full, open access to your methods and results.



Sharing MS/MS Spectra with Manuscripts


If you are looking for a MS/MS spectrum viewer, you may not be familiar with Skyline, a tool developed primarily to aid targeted proteomics investigation.  Skyline does, however, provide features that make it ideal for sharing MS/MS spectra with manuscripts before and after publication.  Skyline displays fully annotated spectra for peptides with post translational modifications (PTMs) and neutral losses extremely quickly, and the Skyline software itself is freely available and easy to install. [Install Now]

If you already have a Skyline document that was submitted as part of a manuscript follow the steps below to use Skyline to view these spectra:

  • On the File menu, click Open (ctrl-O).
  • Select the shared file you are working with (usually .sky.zip).
  • Click Open.

Once the file is open in Skyline, it should look something like this:

If you do not see the MS/MS spectrum graph:

  • On the View menu, click MS/MS Spectra.

If you want to see different precursor charge states for the peptides in the document:

  • On the Edit menu, choose Expand All and click Peptides.

Select peptides or precursors in the Peptide View on the left to see the corresponding MS/MS spectrum.

For PTMs in the Peptide View, any modified amino acid is bold and underlined.

If you hover over a protein name, the positions of the peptides it contains are highlighted in bold colored text.  If a peptide is selected in the Peptide View, it is highlighted in red.

 If a peptide of interest contains post translational modifications (as in this case Ser-348 phosphorylation) you can see the modified amino acid bold and underlined in the Peptide view.  You can also hover over the peptide and Skyline will present more information in a tip, including the delta-mass of each modification specified in brackets in a field labeled “Modified”.

The MS/MS spectrum is interactive and one can zoom into the spectrum, using the mouse scroll wheel or by clicking and dragging a box around a region of interest, to see further fragmentation details.

In the above case of MS/MS for GSLAS348LDSLR [344, 353], zooming in clearly shows that Ser-348 is phoshorylated, and that there is no site ambiguity as the y5 ion and the y6/y6-98 ions clearly determine the position of the phospho group on Ser-348.

If there is phosphorylation site ambiguity, and the PTM site is indistinguishable, Skyline can be used to simulate both peptide isoforms and to easily indicate site ambiguity:

Such as the peptide

R.GEPNVSYICSR.Y [272, 282], phosphorylation simulated at Ser-277  

and the isoform

R.GEPNVSYICSR.Y [272, 282], phosphorylation simulated at Ser-281

In the Skyline document shown below, both isoforms have a pink triangle in the upper right corner of the peptide label.  This triangle indicates an annotation on the peptide.

To view the peptide annotation, right-click on the peptide sequence in the Peptide View and click Edit Node to view a form like the one displayed below.  (In version 1.2 and later, these annotations are shown in the peptide details tip mentioned above, and also by themselves if you hover the mouse over the colored triangle.)

Skyline Custom Annotation can be used to indicate the site ambiguity as demonstrated above with the “TRUE/FALSE” check mark within the peptide note.  These Annotations can easily be exported into custom Skyline reports (csv files).  For more information on annotations and reports, consult the Skyline Custom Reports & Results Grid tutorial.

Publishing a Skyline document for MS/MS spectrum viewing as part of manuscript submission allows the reader to interactively view MS/MS spectra.  Skyline can help with assessment of site ambiguity and allow you to indicate, using custom annotation, cases where site ambiguity of PTMs exists.

These Skyline spectral libraries can be further used to design targeted assays and may provide a valuable resource for researchers interested in a certain data set.

For manuscript submission, Skyline spectral libraries can easily be generated from many common peptide identification search engine outputs, for further details see the Skyline Spectral Library Explorer tutorial. 




Miscellaneous





ExD ion types


Overview

Skyline supports commonly used a, b, c, x, y, z ion types with masses calculated according to the Biemann classification [1]. While sufficient for most proteomics experiments, EAD (electron assisted dissociation) and related ionization methods produce some unusual ions that were impossible to track, specifically, z+1 radical ion and z+2 even electron ion[2]. Skyline now supports these ion types starting from version 21.2.1.404.

According to the de-facto standard in the literature, the z• and z’ notation is used for the z+1 radical ion and z+2 ion accordingly. Skyline uses it consistently across the UI in the chromatogram, mass-spectra and the targets tree. The library and full scan spectrum viewers have menu items to enable corresponding peak annotations.

 

 

Since the • in z• is not a character that is easy to type on a standard keyboard, aliases were introduced to facilitate user input. A couple of places where the aliases are used are the Find function of the ion picker list and the Filter tab of the Transition Settings dialog. z. or z* can be used for z• ions and z’ or z” for z’ ions.

 

 

References:


1. K. Biemann, Methods in Enzymology, 193, 886-887 (1990)
2. K.O. Zhurov et al., Chem. Soc. Rev., 42, 5014-5030 (2013)




Peak Area Dotp Line Plot


Peak Area Dotp Line Plot

Dotp is short for Dot Product. Skyline can calculate following measures of spectral similarity:

  • between the transition peak areas and library spectra (dotp);
  • between the transition peak areas of a peptide and its isotopically labeled version (ratio dot product, rdotp);
  • between areas of precursor isotopic peaks and expected isotopic profile (isotope dot product, idotp).

While the actual dot product(covariance) was the initial similarity metric used by Skyline, most recent versions actually use normalized spectral contrast angle. Since dot products are calculated using the peak areas they are graphically represented in the Peak Area Replicate Comparison plot. They are also available in the Document Grid reports. Previous versions of Skyline presented dotp as labels in the peak area bar chart. Starting from the version 21.2.1.424 it can also be represented as an interactive line plot. Unlike the labels, the plot is visible in both bar chart and line chart modes.

The line uses the right Y axis for scale. Presentation mode is controlled through the context menu or the properties dialog, so it is possible to revert to the old presentation as labels or turn it off completely.
Mouse hover over a point in the plot shows a tooltip with replicate name and numeric value of dotp for that replicate.
User can specify a dotp cutoff value individually for each type of dot product in the properties dialog. If the cutoff line is enabled, the cutoff value is shown in the plot and the points below the line are highlighted red.



Synchronized Integration


Synchronized integration is an option in Skyline that allows integration in a single replicate to be applied to others. It can be accessed either by right-clicking on a chromatogram to bring up the context menu or through Edit > Integration > Synchronize Integration.

 

This will bring up the Synchronized Integration dialog, which allows you to select which replicates should be synchronized.

If annotations are available in the document, groups of replicates to be synchronized can also be chosen.

If predicted retention times are auto-calculated, you may align times to the predicted retention times. Similarly, if retention time alignments are available for a data file, you may align times to that file. (This is the same as selecting "Show <retention time predictor> Score" or "Align Times to <file>" from the chromatogram context menu)

 

Once synchronized integration is enabled, any integration change (manual integration, clicking a peak, removing a peak) will be applied to the selected set.

Note that the retention times may not be exactly the same across synchronized replicates if there are not peaks at the same times. The nearest peaks are used in this case.




Skyline and Java


Occasionally we get questions about Skyline and Java, especially when a new Java security flaw is announced. Here is what you need to know:

  • Skyline is written in C#, so Java library vulnerabilities are not an issue. 

  • The Skyline informational website (https://skyline.ms/)  and related Panorama website  (https://panoramaweb.org/) do use Java, and are professionally maintained by the University of Washington Genome Sciences IT group who are extremely proactive in addressing security vulnerabilities.


 




Skyline Protein Association


Parsimonious Protein Inference

1. Protein association

After matching peptides in the Skyline document to proteins in a FASTA or background proteome, a bipartite graph is created with edges between peptides and their matching proteins.
Protein Inference Step 1

2. Protein grouping

Proteins that match the same set of peptides may optionally be merged into a single node in the graph. These proteins are referred to as an indistinguishable protein group (or just protein group). After this step, the word "protein" may refer to either a protein or a protein group.
Protein Inference Step 2

3. Sharing peptides between proteins

Many peptides are contained in more than one protein in a FASTA or background proteome. Skyline can optionally assign these peptides to just one protein, or even remove shared peptides entirely. Shared peptides can be:

  • Duplicated between proteins
  • Assigned to the first protein (that was read in from a FASTA or background proteome)
  • Assigned to the protein with the most peptides (in case of ties, all tied proteins will be accepted)
  • Removed (peptides must be unique to a protein or protein group)

Before Skyline 22.1, the only two options were "Remove duplicate peptides" and "Remove repeated peptides". Those are still available but have been renamed to "Removed" and "Assigned to first protein".

If neither "Remove subset proteins" nor "Find minimal protein list" are selected, then no more steps are run. Otherwise, step 4 is run next.

4. Protein clustering

To simplify computation and also make it easier for users to understand, the graph is separated into clusters (connected components): these are sets of proteins and peptides that are directly or indirectly connected.
Protein Inference Step 3
Then either step 4a or step 4b is run depending on which parsimony option is selected.

4a. Finding minimal protein list that explains all peptides

For each cluster, a greedy algorithm is applied that attempts to find the smallest set of proteins that explains all the cluster's peptides. The proteins in the resulting "minimal list" are marked as parsimonious.
Protein Inference Step 4

Greedy algorithm:

The algorithm works iteratively. For each iteration, the protein that explains the most peptides (that have not previously been explained) is taken out of the cluster and counted as explained. That protein's peptides are also removed from the other proteins that have not yet been considered. When there are no more remaining unexplained peptides, the algorithm is done and the proteins that have not been considered are marked as non-parsimonious. If two or more proteins explain the same number of peptides, then all tied proteins will be accepted into the minimal list. This prevents the parsimony algorithm from arbitrarily excluding proteins due to the order they were enumerated from the FASTA file. The greedy algorithm does not always find the true minimal list, but it's usually pretty close.

4b. Removing subset proteins

If the "Find minimal protein list that explains all peptides" option is not selected, then Skyline can instead remove only subset proteins. Non-parsimonious, non-subset proteins can be retained (proteins which are not strict subsets of any other protein, but all of their peptides are entirely explained by other parsimonious proteins). To illustrate, consider the following examples:
Non-parsimonious subset protein

Example of a subset protein (all subset proteins are also non-parsimonious)

Non-parsimonious non-subset protein

Example of a non-parsimonious but non-subset protein



Spectrum Filters in Skyline 23.1


Skyline version 23.1 will have a new feature which will allow you to tell Skyline that the chromatograms for a particular precursor should be extracted from a subset of the available spectra.

You can right-click on something in the Targets tree and choose "Edit Spectrum Filter..." to bring up the "Edit Spectrum Filter" dialog.

The Edit Spectrum Filter dialog can be brought up when multiple items are selected in the Targets tree.

If all of the selected items in the Targets tree already have exactly the same Spectrum Filter on them, then the Edit Spectrum Filter will enable editing those filters, and the "Create Copy" checkbox can be used to control whether the current filter will be changed (unchecked) or something new will be added with the new set of filter clauses.

If the selected items have different filters on them, then the Edit Spectrum Filter will be shown with no clauses in it, and the "Create copy" checkbox will be checked and disabled since the only option will be to add new things with the new set of filter clauses.




EncyclopeDIA Search from Skyline 23.1


Skyline 23.1 has an import wizard to let you easily run a library-free EncyclopeDIA search on your gas-phase fractionated (narrow window) and single injection (wide window) DIA results. You choose a FASTA and Skyline generates a Prosit library from it and uses that to seed the EncyclopeDIA search. After the search, Skyline automatically imports the chromatogram and quantification libraries that were created.

1. Start the wizard

Select Import > EncyclopeDIA Search

2. Choose FASTA

Choose FASTA

  • Enzyme and missed cleavages determine which peptides will be predicted
  • Prosit prediction on a whole proteome can take a while so for a quick test choose a targeted FASTA

3. Pick Prosit settings

Prosit settings

  • m/z min/max can be set to filter peptide predictions on m/z
  • Precursor charges between 1 and 6
  • Default NCE is the NCE at the default charge

4. Pick GPF (narrow window) DIA results

Narrow results

  • EncyclopeDIA searches these to build chromatogram library

5. Pick single injection (wide window) DIA results

Wide results

  • EncyclopeDIA searches these to build quantification library

6. Pick EncyclopeDIA settings

EncyclopeDIA settings

  • Wizard page currently only exposes peak tolerances
  • All EncyclopeDIA settings can be edited in “Additional Settings”

7. Watch progress

Watch progress

8. After search finishes, import proceeds with the import peptide search wizard where the EncyclopeDIA libraries have been preselected




Automated labels layout


Automated labels layout

Skyline’s Relative Abundance and Volcano Plot graphs have ability to label the graph points and automatically layout the labels to avoid overlaps with data points and other labels.

User can use Formatting dialog to format and label series of peptide/protein points according to user-specified criteria. See DIA/SWATH data analysis tutorial (p. 27) for information on using the Volcano Plot formatting options. Also, selected peptides/proteins are labeled by default (the red color on the picture above).

The user can control label layout settings using graph’s context menu.

The Auto Arrange Labels menu item allows to turn automated label layout off (it is on by default). In this case the labels will be positioned immediately above the corresponding points disregarding possible overlaps, as shown on the image above.

When Auto Arrange Label is on, user can move the labels around to fine-tune the automatically generated layout. In Skyline version 24.1 label drag is enabled by moving the mouse over the label you want to move and pressing and holding Alt key. The mouse cursor will change to indicating the drag mode. In the later versions when the mouse is moved over a label, a label border box shows. When the mouse pointer is positioned over the border box it changes to and the label can be dragged.

By default the label layout is recalculated every time the graph is zoomed or panned, or the Skyline document is modified. This might make the graph a bit jumpy and hard to manage, especially when there is a lot of points/labels. Also any manual label re-positioning is lost. To avoid that you can use Suspend Label Layout context menu item. When the layout is suspended, Skyline would not recalculate the layout every time you zoom/pan the graph, but document edits, like peptide/protein addition/removal will still trigger it. So you might want to postpone the final fine-tuning until your document is stable.

The layout is saved in the *.sky.view file when you explicitly save the document. If you modify the labels layout without modifying the document structure and exit Skyline the layout changes will not be saved. Use Save toolbar button or menu item.




Skyline Batch


   Skyline Batch is an application that automates a common Skyline workflow for batch processing Skyline documents. It interacts with Skyline through the command-line, allowing it to import data into a template document, export reports, and run R scripts on those reports without bringing up the Skyline user interface.

 

Install Skyline Batch for Skyline 20.2 or later, or Skyline-daily (20.2.1 or later)

Skyline Batch Documentation

 

 

Skyline Batch Webinar

A hands-on demonstration displaying the depth of Skyline Batch as well as new features:

Webinar 20: Using Skyline Batch for Large-Scale DIA

 

Skyline Batch Tutorials

Learn how to use Skyline Batch by completing the supplementary tutorials on the Webinar 14 and 15 pages:

Webinar 14: Large Scale DIA with Skyline

Webinar 15: Optimizing Large Scale DIA with Skyline

 

 

Skyline Batch Release Notes

 

Skyline Batch 21.1.0.306 (Nov. 2nd, 2021)

  • Remote file sources make downloading files from similar locations easier
  • Added undo/redo functionality for changes to the configuration list
  • Bug fixes for adding R scripts and downloading files from Panorama

 

Skyline Batch 21.1.0.187 (July 6th, 2021)

  • Skyline template files, annotation files, data files, and R scripts can now be downloaded from Panorama
  • New download data files dialog that includes an interactive list of the files to be downloaded
  • Improved Skyline Batch configuration files that are more easily readable in a text editor
  • Updated run button options

 

Skyline Batch 21.1.0.146 (May 26th, 2021)

  • Added a "download files only" run option
  • Allow waiting configurations to be unchecked and removed from the current batch run
  • Log improvements
  • Data download bug fixes

 

Skyline Batch 20.2.0.475 (Apr. 20th, 2021)

  • Can download data files from an FTP server
  • Added support for different number formats

 

Skyline Batch 20.2.0.464 (Apr. 9th, 2021)

  • Import configurations by double-clicking a Skyline Batch Configuration file
  • No longer requires a Skyline report file for reports that already exist in the template document
  • Improved file detection for sharing configurations across computers 

 

Skyline Batch 20.2.0.453 (Mar. 29th, 2021)

  • New option for Skyline file refinement
  • Supports using refined files as templates for other configurations
  • Added ability to import annotations
  • Bug fixes for finding R installations, logging, and more

 

Skyline Batch 20.2.0.398 (Feb. 2nd, 2021)

  • Runs multiple Skyline workflows sequentially
  • Displays log of current run
  • Allows different configurations to use different Skyline installations
  • Supports running R scripts with any version of R

 

 




Skyline File Types and Extensions


Here is a complete list of Skyline file types:

  • .sky - the main Skyline document file
  • .sky.view - contains state information about the Skyline UI when the .sky file was last saved, e.g. selection and window layout - can be deleted
  • .skyd - contains all the chromatograms and the complete set of peak statistics (generally 10 per chromatogram) considered by Skyline
  • .skyl - the Skyline audit log file
  • .blib - a Skyline native spectral library
  • .slc - a "spectral library cache" created to improve initial spectral library load performance - can be deleted and Skyline will simply recreate it
  • .irtdb - a Skyline iRT library file
  • .optdb - a Skyline optimization library for CE and CoV optimization values
  • .protdb - a background proteome file
  • .imsdb - and ion mobility library (coming in 20.2) which stores ion mobility and CCS values
  • .midas - a spectral library file for spectra from SCIEX MIDAS runs

External library types:

  • .hlf - X! Hunter spectral library from theGPM
  • .sptxt - SpectraST spectral library from the TPP
  • .msp - NIST spectral library

But don't try to understand all of the above just to share a complete Skyline document/project with others, instead use File > Share or Upload to Panorama to create a:

  • .sky.zip - a compressed ZIP archive which contains the full set of files required to share your document/project

Exported files not associated with the .sky file:

  • .skys - a Skyline settings file which can be imported into a menu item on the Skyline Settings menu
  • .skyr - a Skyline report template file which can be imported back into Skyline to add report templates to the available set
  • .skyp - a new Skyline "pointer" file that can be downloaded from Panorama very quickly and will then initiate a full download inside Skyline when opened



Waters SONAR Calibration


Waters SONAR support has recently been improved in Skyline. SONAR users should consult this information provided by Waters:  https://support.waters.com/KB_Inf/MassLynx/WKB202040_How_to_create_post-acquisition_a_SONAR_calibration_file




Audit Logging


(This tip applies to Skyline-Daily 4.1.1.18257 and later.)

When enabled, the audit log will keep track of all changes that are made to the current document. The audit log is stored as a separate file (.skyl), alongside with the skyline document.

The audit log can be accessed from the View menu. The audit log is displayed in a grid, similar to the document grid. In the top right corner audit logging can be enabled or disabled.

For new documents, audit logging is enabled by default.

Reasons to enable Audit Logging

•Reproducibility: The audit log makes it easy to see what changes were made to a document and can be used to reproduce a document step-by-step. 
•Collaboration: If multiple people are working on the same document it can be helpful to have a record of what each person has done to the document. 
•Troubleshooting: If the user encounters an error in Skyline, the audit log can be helpful for the Skyline team to diagnose and fix the issue.

 

Full details can be found here (PDF).




Crosslinking


Support for crosslinked peptides was first added to Skyline version 20.2.

Skyline 21.1 improved this feature by making it much easier to link more than two peptides together.

Skyline 23.1 will have support for cleavable crosslinks




New in Skyline 4.1


Attached are a collection of slides created by the developers as they added new features in Skyline 4.1 which required a bit of explanation:

  • Small molecule spectral libraries, improved adducts, and identifier (InChiKey, InChi, CAS, and HMDB)
  • Document Grid and Live Report pivot and layout support
  • Group comparison volcano plot with formatting
  • Peak Area CV histogram plots
  • Quantitative property for transitions
  • Points across the peak visualization in chromatogram plots



How to Display Multiple Peptides


Skyline allows you to compare chromatograms of different peptides by selecting them in the Targets  panel shown by default on the left side of the Skyline window.

For example, to see all the peptides belonging to a particular protein, click on the protein name in the Targets panel:

Skyline generates a color for each peptide based on the peptide sequence and modifications.  This provides a quick way to identify the matching chromatogram in the graph.  A peptide will always have the same color, even in different Skyline documents, unless there is another peptide within the same protein that generates the same color.  That doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, Skyline picks one of the conflicting peptides and assigns it a new color that is easier to differentiate.

Color swatches are shown in the Targets panel next to only those peptides which are shown in the graph.  In the example above, only the peptides under the selected protein are shown in the graph.

The peptides are also labeled in the graph with a unique abbreviation.  If the first three letters of the peptide’s name are unique (among the peptides being graphed), then only three letters will be used in the abbreviation.  If the first three and last three letters together are unique, the abbreviation will use those (see ASL…KGK in the example above).  More complicated abbreviation schemes are used if the first and last three letters are not unique.  Note that a peptide’s abbreviation can change depending on what other peptides are being displayed at the same time.

Graphing peptide subsets

The Targets panel allows you to select any subset of peptides you want.  You can select just a few peptides (from one protein, or across different proteins) by clicking on the first, and then holding the CTRL key down while clicking on additional peptides.  You can toggle a peptide by clicking on it multiple times with the CTRL key depressed.

You can select individual peptides by clicking on their names, or you can select all the peptides belonging to a protein by clicking on the protein name.

 

 

All peptides

To see every peptide in the document graphed, click somewhere in the Targets panel to transfer focus there, then type CTRL-A (or choose Select All from the Edit menu):

Note that this can take some time to display if your document contains a large number of peptides.

Displaying all the peptides will produce a graph that looks similar to the progress displayed during data import:

But you can see differences between this graph and the one above.  Peptide colors will usually match, but occasionally they don’t if a different color is needed to disambiguate two peptides in the same protein.  Peak values can also differ, because different summation criteria are used during import than later when more processing has been done on the raw data.




Ion Mobility Separation (IMS) Data


Skyline supports IMS data for Waters, Agilent, Thermo (FAIMS) and Bruker instruments.  By specifying the ion mobility for each precursor ion of interest you can tell Skyline to ignore scans that might contribute noise, and thus improve the quality of extracted chromatograms. The Ion Mobility Spectrum Filtering tutorial provides examples and more detail.

Ion mobility values may be specified in Ion Mobility libraries, or defined explicitly in transition list imports, and may also be found in spectral libraries (for the latter, make sure to check the "Use spectral library ion mobility values when present" box in the Ion Mobility tab of the Transition Settings dialog). The order of precedence is: explicit values, Ion Mobility Library values, Spectral Library values.

You will notice that an ion mobility is commonly expressed as a Collision Cross Section (CCS) value and an ion mobility value. It's important to understand that the CCS value takes priority: different raw data files may contain different CCS->mobility calibrations, so the actual ion mobility filter value for a chromatogram extraction is always derived from the CCS value when available. Thus, if you want to experiment with adjusting ion mobility values for chromatogram extraction, it's import to either adjust CCS rather than ion mobility, or to clear the CCS setting so that your adjusted ion mobility value is the one that gets used. 

To add or modify an ion mobility library, use the Settings|Transition Settings menu item and select the Ion Mobility tab, then use the "Ion Mobility Library" drop down menu to bring up the Ion Mobility Library editor.  

The easiest way to set up an ion mobility library is to start with a Skyline document with imported results, then use the "Use Results" button in the Ion Mobility Library editor.  This simply scans the existing imported results and determines the ion mobility value of the scan containing the most intense peak.  Once you have that, you can reimport the data and Skyline can ignore scans at the proper retention time but wrong ion mobility.

There is a risk, of course, that the most intense peak at a given retention time isn't actually that of the precursor you are interested in, in which case you will be making the noise situation worse instead of better.  The ideal way to use this training feature is with simple training sets that elute one precursor at a time.  If you do not have that capability then you should go through and verify the ion mobility selections manually using the Full Scan chromatogram viewer's intensity heat map of mz vs ion mobility.

You can also set explicit ion mobility values for small molecule precursors using the right-click menu in the Targets window. This can also be done in the Document Grid, so it's possible for peptide precursors as well.




Skyline Source Code


The Skyline project is developed in open source, under Apache 2.0 License, though released under a modified Apache 2.0 License, due to the inclusion of third party libraries with licensing restrictions.

The source code for Skyline is made available through the ProteoWizard GitHub Repository. The main Skyline project can be found under:

pwiz_tools/Skyline

If you are interested in working with the Skyline source code, follow the "How to build Skyline" instructions.




How to build Skyline


How to Build Skyline

Follow these steps to configure your PC to build Skyline:

 GitHub

The Skyline source code is part of the ProteoWizard project, and is hosted at GitHub.

  1. You will need a GitHub account 
  2. You will need to configure it to use two factor authentication.
    Don't go down any rabbit holes about SSH keys yet. See the next step for that.
  3. You will also need to set up an SSH key and add it to your GitHub account
    You can ignore the stuff about GitLab, it's GitHub we're interested in.
    In the step where you create the .ssh directory, you may have to use the windows command line "mkdir" rather than Windows Explorer (some systems don't like a folder name that starts with ".").

TortoiseGit

You can use this or any Git client you like, as long as it provides C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe - the Skyline team uses TortoiseGit and Git For Windows.

  1. Download from https://tortoisegit.org/download

  2. Just accept the defaults during the installation.

  3. If you don't already have a git.exe, let TortoiseGit help you download and install Git For Windows.

  4. If you're installing Git For Windows, just accept the defaults. If it asks you for your GitHub login, provide that if you have one, or tell it you'll do that later.

  5. It's recommended to edit your settings so that some commonly used operations are promoted to the main right click menu:
    Create Branch, Log, Diff, Check for modifications, Add, and Switch/checkout

  6. It's also recommended that you run this git command to set your CRLF defaults: "git config --global core.autocrlf true".  This gives you Windows-style line endings in your editor, but saves the standard Unix line endings on GitHub.

  7. If you're planning on making commits to the codebase, a ProteoWizard owner can grant access to the organization here

Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition

  • Download Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/.
  • When you install, select ".Net Desktop Development" and "Desktop Development with C++" so you get C#, C++, and dotNet developer tools.
  • You may be asked to reboot, or Visual Studio 2022 may be launched. If you do reboot, you will need to launch Visual Studio 2022 yourself to continue.
  • On first launch VS2022 will ask you to sign in - It is not necessary to sign in. You can just choose "maybe later" or similar when asked to sign in.
  • Check the "Apply customizations from previous version" box if you're upgrading. Choose the "Visual C#" option.
  • You'll need the current .Net developer pack at https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework/thank-you/net481-web-installer, or VS2022 may prompt you for it when you first try to build Skyline.

ReSharper Ultimate

We highly recommended this set of Visual Studio extensions and develop Skyline to be warning-free under its static analysis. Students with a .edu email address can get a free license.

  1. Download and install Resharper from this link https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/download/
  2. Install ReSharper, dotTrace, dotMemory, dotCover and anything else available that interests you.
  3. Most Skyline developers choose the IntelliJ keyboard setup.
  4. In VS 2022:
    • Extensions > Customize Menu - Uncheck ReSharper and click Save and Restart
    • ReSharper > Options - select Products and Features - uncheck Dynamic Program Analysis and click Save - restart VS 2022 [bug]

Anti-virus Exemptions

You will need to exclude the ProteoWizard source code tree from antivirus inspection. If you don't, Skyline's "AaantivirusTestExclusion" test will fail, and other tests will run inefficiently. How this is done depends on your choice of antivirus software. 

Mascot Parser

  1. Go to http://www.matrixscience.com/msparser_download.html to register with Matrix Science
  2. They'll send you an email, follow the instructions to download the latest for 64 bit windows. 
  3. Run (as administrator) the 64 bit self-extractor, extracting to "C:\Program Files\Matrix Science\Mascot Parser\"

Checking out the ProteoWizard source code with TortoiseGit

  1. Create a ‘Proteowizard’ folder somewhere (e.g. under I:\proj)
  2. Right-click in the folder and select Git Clone (if that's not there, you skipped TortoiseGit install)
  3. For "URL:" enter git@github.com:ProteoWizard/pwiz.git
  4. Check the "Load Putty Key" box, and enter the path to the .ppk file that you created earlier (it's in your .ssh directory).
  5. Click OK. 
  6. The first time you do this, you'll get a message from the Pageant progrem (part of Putty) asking for the keyphrase you gave when you created your .ppk file. You'll also get a security alert about an uncached key, respond "Yes".
  7. Once the project is checked out, if you do not see TortoiseGit overlay icons in the Windows File Explorer, consult this helpful tip.

To Build Skyline and ProteoWizard

This step builds the ProteoWizard core library used by Skyline to read mass spec data, as well as Skyline itself, and runs tests on both.  Once you've done this, as a Skyline developer you'll mostly work in the Visual Studio IDE.  If you need to work on the ProteoWizard core, it's back to the bjam-based build system (though you can follow the debugger from Skyline into the pwiz core, if pwiz is built with the "debug" option). 

In these instructions, <root> refers to that umbrella directory you set up earlier as an antivirus exclusion.

  1. In a command prompt window, change directory to the root of the project that you cloned from github
  2. Create a batch file named "b64.bat" in this directory by creating a new file text file with a single line like this:

    pwiz_tools\build-apps.bat 64 --i-agree-to-the-vendor-licenses toolset=msvc-14.3 %*

  3. Type b64.bat in the command-line.
  4. Skyline will build, along with ProteoWizard tools like msconvert and SeeMS. You'll see lots of Skyline windows flashing by as the tests are run. 
  5. Regrettably, there are a handful of "errors" flagged in this initial build step which are alarming but don't actually matter for our purposes. But if your build doesn't seem to be working out, have a look in the file build64.log for clues.

For the quickest possible build (quick because it skips tests), create a batch file bs64.bat containing the line "call b64.bat pwiz_tools\Skyline//Skyline.exe" and use that instead.

Test and Begin Skyline Development

Note that the first time you open Skyline.sln, you are likely to be asked to download and install an updated dotNet package - do that.

  1. In Windows Explorer navigate to <root>\proj\Proteowizard\pwiz\pwiz_tools\Skyline

  2. Double-click Skyline.sln

  3. Be sure that your build configuration (Release x64) is set correctly. (Since VS 2022, Debug x64 is a better choice for debugging work.)
  4. Make sure your test settings match your build configuration:
    Test > Configure Run Settings > Select Solution Wide runsettings File
    and browser for either TestSettings_x64.runsettings in the Skyline folder
  5. On the Tools menu, click Options, select Debugging, select General, and uncheck the 'Enable Just My Code (Managed only)' option.
  6. On the ReSharper menu, if you have one, click Options, under Tools, select Unit Testing
    • Select Test Runner, and in 'Shadow-copy assemblies being tested' choose 'None'.
    • Select Test Frameworks > MSTest, choose 'Use specific test settings file', and enter the path to TestSettings_x64.runsettings as above.
  7. In the Test menu, choose Run and click All Tests in Solution
  8. Once all of the tests have passed, you are ready to explore the code and implement new features.

Common Erros

Build Failure "NU1101 Unable to find package NetMQ. No packages exist with this id in source(s): Microsoft Visual Studio Offline Packages"

This build failure means Visual Studio does not have NuGet remote repository as a source and therefore not able to download the NetMQ when it is missing locally. To fix this:

  • Click on Tools menu

  • Select NuGet Package Manager
  • Select Package Manager Settings, this opens the Options menu for NuGet Package Manger and auto select the General settings
  • Select Package Sources settings (below General)
  • Click on the "+" sign to the top right conner.
  • In the Name text box, enter nuget.org
  • In the Source text box, enter https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
  • Click on OK
  • Then go to Build menu and select Build Solution
  • Now the build should succeed or at least not show the "Unable to find package NetMQ" error.



Documentation


Most of the existing Skyline user documentation can be found in the Videos, Tutorials, Webinars, and Tips sections.  Here, however, are a few documents which do not fit into those categories, but still provide useful information on advanced topics in using Skyline for targeted proteomics data analysis:

  • Skyline Command-Line Interface - Learn about SkylineRunner.exe and how you can use it to run certain Skyline operations from a command-line.
    NOTE: for the most current command-line documentation, run SkylineRunner.exe or SkylineCmd.exe without any command-line arguments.  The same information can be found in the Skyline user interface at Help > Documentation > Command Line.
  • Skyline External Tools Documentation - Learn how to integrate with Skyline statistical and bioinformatics tools you are developing.
  • Skyline Interactive Tools Documentation - Learn how to integrate with Skyline interactive tools written with .NET which can request data from Skyline and respond to document changes on the fly.



Users Meetings


Since 2012, the Skyline team has been holding an annual User Group Meeting the Sunday before the annual ASMS conference.  Made possible by the generosity of our vendor sponsors, the User Group Meeting has showcased the creative and innovative ways that Skyline has been used in mass spectrometry research over the many years that it has been freely available.

2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

 

 

  

2023 - Houston, TX

June 4, 2023

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington):
Introduction and event host

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Status of the Skyline open-source software project 15 years after its inception

Abigail Burrows Franco Ph.D., (University of Kentucky):
Efficient generation of highly multiplexed serum biomarker panels using gas phase fractionation and DIA libraries

Philip Remes Ph.D., (Thermo Fisher Scientific):
A Skyline Tool for Creating Robust Large Scale Targeted MS/MS Assays

Julia Robbins, (Talus Bio):
How sweet it is: Leveraging the nuclear envelope glycome for the automated extraction of proteins from cell nuclei

Stoyan Stoychev Ph.D., (Evosep and ReSyn Biosciences):
Mag-Net: Bead based capture of membrane particles from plasma enables liquid biopsy measurements for >4,500 proteins

Gary Siuzdak Ph.D., (The Scripps Research Institute):
METLIN Ion Mobility: How to Analyze a Million Molecular Standards and Stay Sane

Lightning Talks

Ellen Casavant, Ph.D., (Genetech):
AutoQC enables efficient and reproducible LC-MS/MS chromatography and instrumentation

Gunnar Dittmar Ph.D., (Luxembourg Institute of Health):
Quantification of 782 Plasma Peptides by Multiplexed Targeted Proteomics

Jeroen Demmers Ph.D., (Erasmus MC Proteomics):
Targeted mass spectrometry reveals that USP7 regulates the ncPRC1 Polycomb axis

Tom Lin Ph.D., (Washington University in St. Louis):
An Unbiased Proteomics Method to Discover Posttranslational Arginylation Sites from Whole Proteomes

Eduard Sabido Ph.D., (Center for Genomics Regulation and the University Pompeu Fabra):
High-collision energy data-independent acquisition enables targeted and discovery identification of modified ribonucleotides by mass spectrometry

Ariana Shannon, (Ohio State University):
Generating fit-for-purpose targeted assays from a catalog of pre-screened peptides using data-independent acquisition (DIA) based figures of merit


  

2022 - Minneapolis, MN 

June 5, 2022

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington): Introduction and event host

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington): 
Status of the Skyline open-source software project 14 years after its inception

Nathan Basisty, Ph.D. (NIH): 
Accurate Calculation of Protein Half-Lives with the TurnoveR External Tool in Skyline

James Dodds,   Ph.D., (North Carolina Statue University): 
Improving the Speed and Selectivity of Newborn Screening using Ion Mobility Spectrometry – Mass Spectrometry (IMS-MS) analyzed via Skyline.

Evan Hubbard (University of California - Riverside): 
Finding and Quantifying Amino Acid Isomers in Data-independent Acquisition Data to Achieve Isomer Proteomics

Yishai Levin, (Weizmann Institute of Science ): 
How Skyline Saved Us From Publishing Erroneous Data

Florence Roux-Dalvai, (CHU de Québec - Université Laval, Québec, Canada ): 
Comparative analysis of library-based and library-free DIA strategies using Skyline software

Lightning Talks

Joanna Bons, Ph.D., (Buck Institute) 
ZenoTOF 7600 Acquisitions with Electron Activated Dissociation and Novel Skyline Features for Quantification of Protein Post-translational Modifications

Lilian Heil, (University of Washington): 
Automating Transition Refinement for Unit Resolution PRM

Alison Porter (University of Kentucky College of Medicine): 
Identifying and Validating Bisphosphonate Protein Biomarkers in Equine Sera Using Mass Spectrometry Methods

Yixuan (Axe) Xie, Ph.D., (Washington University in St. Louis): 
Development of data-independent acquisition (DIA-MS) methods for Glycan and RNA modification analysis


 

  

2021 - Online

October 27 - 28, 2021

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington): Introduction and event host

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington): 
Status of the Skyline Open-source Software Project 13 Years after its Inception

Chris Ashwood, Ph.D., (Glycomics Core, BIDMC): 
High-throughput Glycan Composition Profiling Enabled by MALDISkyLink and the Skyline Ecosystem

Natan Basisty, Ph.D., (NIH): 
Analysis of Protein Turnover Rates in Skyline with the TurnoveR External Tool

Michelle Kennedy, (Cristea Lab, Princeton University): 
Leveraging Skyline to Develop and Analyze Data from a Targeted Mass Spectrometry Assay for Pan-herpesvirus Protein Detection

Bini Ramachandran, Ph.D., (FARRP, University of Nebraska-Lincoln): 
Matrix-independent Calibration: A Consensus Strategy to Quantify an Analyte from Different Types of Matrices.

Juan Rojas,, (University of Leipzig - Hoffmann Lab): 
Skyline for the Parallel Analysis of LC-TWIMS-MS/MS DDA and DIA Data

Lightning Talks

Robert Ahrends, Ph.D., (University of Vienna): 
Targeting the Lipid Metabolism with LipidCreator and STAMPS to Investigate Fat Cell Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Elena Barletta, (University of Zurich): 
Mass Spectrometry-based Identification of Allergen Proteins Involved in Seafood-related Allergic Reactions

Muluneh Fashe, Ph.D., (University of North Carolina - Lee Lab): 
Using Skyline to Quantify Drug Metabolizing Enzyme and Transport Protein Concentrations in Sandwich-Cultured Primary Human Hepatocytes

MaKayla Foster, (North Carolina State University) 
Utilizing Skyline for the Evaluation and Quantitation of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

Virag Sagi-Kiss, Ph.D., (Imperial College London): 
Rapid Sample Preprocessing of a Large Number of Targeted Metabolites with Skyline

Nikunj Tanna, (Waters Corporation): 
MassLynx Skyline Interface - Enabling automated MRM method development for targeted proteomics and peptide bioanalysis workflows


 

  

2020 - Online

May 27 - 28, 2020

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington): Introduction and event host

Full Talks

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington): 
Status of the Skyline Open-source Software Project 12 Years after its Inception

Josue Baeza, Ph.D., (Garcia Lab, University of Pennsylvania): 
> Applications of Skyline for Method Development and Quantification of Histone Marks

Viktoria Dorfer, Ph.D., (University of Applied Sciences - Upper Austria): 
MS Amanda goes West: Integrating a Search Engine into Skyline

Todd Greco, Ph.D., (Cristea Lab, Princeton University): 
Unbiased and Targeted Mass Spectrometry Provides Insight into Huntington’s Disease Pathogenesis

Kaylie Kirkwood, Ph.D., (Baker Lab, North Carolina State University): 
Developing Multidimensional Small Molecule Spectral Libraries for Rapid Lipid Detection and Quantitation

Roman Sakson,, (Heidelberg Molecular Biology Center): 
Unleashing Versatile Skyline Features for the Everyday Needs of a Proteomics Core Facility

Lightning Talks

Karine Bagramyan, Ph.D., (Kalkum Lab, Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute): 
Using Skyline to Quantify Botulinum Neurotoxin Activity in Complex Biological Samples

Aivett Bilbao, Ph.D., (PNNL): 
Metabolite Profiling for Synthetic Biology using Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry and Data-Independent Acquisition with Improved Targeted Data Extraction Software

Sebastien Gallien, Ph.D., (Thermo Fisher Scientific): 
Towards Turnkey Targeted Proteomics Solutions Using SureQuant Internal Standard Triggered Acquisition on Orbitrap Mass Spectrometers

Benjamin Orsburn, Ph.D., (Johns Hopkins Medical School): 
> Skyline -- A Comprehensive Package for Cannabis Testing Labs

Tobias Schmidt (Kuster Lab, Technical University Munich): 
Real-time Spectrum Prediction in Skyline via ProteomicsDB’s gRPC Interface to Prosit


 

  

2019 - Atlanta, GA

June 2, 2019

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington): Introduction and event host

 

Full Talks

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington): 
Status of the Skyline open-source software project 10 years after its inception

Birgit Schilling, Ph.D. (Buck Insitute) and Susan Abbatiello, Ph.D. (Northeastern):
Skyline: 10-year Retrospective: Part 1Part 2 

Pawel Sadowski, Ph.D. (Queensland University of Technology): 
Teaching Old Dog New Tricks: Adaptation of Skyline to Analyze Untargeted Metabolomics Data Collected on GCMS Instrument

Tobias Schmidt, (Technical University Munich): 
Using Prosit for PRM assay development and optimization

Selene Swanson, (Stowers Institute): 
Absolute quantitative analysis of modified ribonucleosides in tRNA and mRNA using Skyline

Sebastian Vaca, Ph.D. (Broad Institute): 
Avant-garde: A Skyline External Tool for automated data-driven DIA data curation.

Lightning Talks

Matthew MacDonald, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh): 
Multi-omics Approach Identifies Pathological Phosphorylation Events Driving Synapse Loss in Schizophrenia

Sarah Michaud, (University of Victoria): 
Development of Quantitative MRM Assays for the Measurement of 3,000 Proteins across 20 Mouse Tissues

Bhavin Patel, MD (Thermo Fisher Scientific): 
Targeted Mass Spectrometry Assays for Absolute Quantitation of AKT/mTOR Signaling Pathway Proteins


 

  

2018 - San Diego, CA

June 3, 2018

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington): Introduction and event host

Brendan MacLean, (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington): 
Status of the Skyline open-source software project 9 years after its inception

Christopher Ashwood, (Macquarie University): 
Applications of Skyline for automated profiling of cellular protein glycosylation

Paul Auger, (Genentech): 
Automated quality control and system suitability in Panorama for peptide and small molecule analysis

Yao Chen, Ph.D., (Catalent Biologics): 
Independent Digestion with Two Protease Enzymes Combining LC-HRMS Data Independent Acquisition (DIA)

Kristin Geddes, (Merck): 
Implementation of Panorama into Daily Workflows and Quantitative Protein PK Analysis in the Pharmaceutical Setting

Lindsay Pino, (University of Washington): 
Signal Calibration for Quantitative Proteomic

Lightning Talks

Robert Ahrends, Ph.D., (ISAS): 
LipidCreator: A new skyline plugin for targeted LC-MS/MS-based lipidomics

Buyun Chen, (Genentech): 
Important considerations for LC-MS based drug transporter quantitation

Don Davis, (Vanderbilt University): 
The Development, Validation and Clinical Application of a LC – MS/MS Method for Absolute Quantification of Anti-Epileptic Drugs in Serum


 

  

2017 - Indianapolis, IN

June 4, 2017

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington):
Introduction and event host

Matt Rardin Ph.D.(Amgen):
Improved Quality Control Workflows and Other Panorama Updates

Eralp Dogu, Ph.D. (Mugla Sitki Kocman University):
MSstatsQC: An R-based Tool to Monitor System Suitability and Quality Control Results for Targeted Proteomic Experiments

Michael Schirm, Ph.D., (Caprion):
Analysis of Large Scale MRM Studies Using Skyline

Simone Sidoli, Ph.D., (University of Pennsylvania):
DIA for Differential Quantification of Isobaric Phosphopeptides and Other Protein Post-translational Modifications

Adam Officer, (Broad Institute):
Skyline Metadata Annotation and Automation of Robust Data Processing via Panorama Allows for Facile Analysis of High Throughput Targeted Proteomics Data

Brendan MacLean, (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Status of the Skyline open-source software project 9 years after its inception

Lightning Talks

Shadi Eshghi, Ph.D., (Genentech):
A Workflow for Quality Assessment, Quantitation and Statistical Inference of Targeted Proteomics Data using Skyline and Panorama

Matt Foster,  Ph.D., (Duke University):
A Targeted Proteomic Assay Quantifies the Periodic Expression of Cell-cycle Regulators in Yeast S. Cerevisae.

Tania Auchynnikava,  Ph.D., (University of Edenburgh):
Deciphering Mechanisms of Epigenetic Inheritance with MSX-DIA

Juan Chavez, Ph.D., (Univerity of Washington):
A General Method for Targeted Quantitative Cross-Linking Mass Spectrometry

Yang Zhang,  Ph.D., (Amyris):
High Throughput Small Molecule Detection Using Automated Skyline Targeted Workflow


  

2016 - San Antonio, TX

June 5, 2016

Michael J. MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington):
Introduction and event host

Josh Eckels (LabKey):
Improved Quality Control Workflows and Other Panorama Updates

Jay Kirkwood, Ph.D. (Colorado State University):
The Flux Capacitor: Using Skyline for efficient processing of LC-MS/MS metabolic flux data

Brendan MacLean, (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Status of the Skyline open-source software project 8 years after its inception

Diana A.T. Nijholt, Ph.D. (Erasmus MC):
Validating PZP as a biomarker for presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease using targeted proteomics approaches

Lindsay Pino, (University of Washington):
Applying lessons learned from targeted mass spectrometry to data-independent acquisition (DIA) assays

Thierry Schmidlin, (Utrecht University):
Extending Selected Reaction Monitoring to Monitor Diet-Induced Neuropeptide Signaling

 

Lightning Talks

Matthew MacDonald, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh):
Synaptic Protein Networks in Neuropsychiatric Disease

Bing Peng, (ISAS):
Adaptation of Skyline for Targeted Lipidomics

Chris Petzold, Ph.D. (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab):
A Skyline-based workflow for rapid development of high-throughput quantitative proteomic assays

Qi Tang, (ProteinT Biotech):
Edited transition and RT information in Skyline library improves DIA quantification of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) proteomes


 

  

2015 - St. Louis, MO

May 31, 2015

Michael MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington):
Introduction

Tom Dunkley, Ph.D., (Roche Innovation Center): 
Targeted Proteomics (and Skyline) to Characterize an In Vitro Model of Human Neuronal Development

Martin Soste, M.Sc. (Picotti Lab, ETH Zurich):
A Sentinel Protein Assay for Simultaneously Quantifying Cellular Processes

Jim Bollinger, Ph.D. (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Multiplexing Clinical Protein Targets in Dried Blood Spots

Sam Payne, Ph.D. (Pacific Northwest National Lab):
Viewing and Interpreting Data within a Biological Context

Chris Shuford, Ph.D. (LabCorp):
Real-world Application of Skyline in the Development of a Clinically Actionable Protein Measurement

Erin Baker, Ph.D. (Pacific Northwest National Lab):
Utilizing Skyline to Analyze Multidimensional LC-IMS(CID)-MS Data

Laura G. Dubois (Moseley Lab, Duke University):
Expanding Skyline’s Capabilities to Small Molecule Data Analysis

Sonia Ting (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Application of PECAN for confident peptide detection directly from data-independent acquisition (DIA) MS/MS data

Bruno Domon, Ph.D. (Luxembourg Clinical Proteomics Center):
Development and Implementation of Parallel Reaction Monitoring Assays

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Status of the Skyline project seven years after its inception


 

  

2014 - Baltimore, MD

June 15, 2014

Michael MacCoss, Ph.D. (University of Washington):
Introduction

Christopher Kinsinger, Ph.D. (National Cancer Institute):
The Skyline software project for clinical proteomics: lessons learned 

Richard C. King, Ph. D. (PharmaCadence Analytical Services):
Skyline: Everyday tool for protein quantification 

Michael Bereman, Ph. D. (North Carolina State University):
Statistical Process Control for Accessing Data Quality Throughout an LC MS/MS Experiment 

Meena Choi (Vitek Lab, Purdue University):
MSstats as an external tool in Skyline – an R package for statistical analysis of quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomic experiments 

Stephen Pennington, Ph. D. (University College Dublin):
Label-free LC-MS and MRM assay development for discovery and verification of biomarkers for organ confined prostate cancer 

Dario Amodei, Ph. D. (Mallick Lab, Stanford University):
Multi-Instrument, Skyline-Based Comparison of DIA Peptide Detection and Statistical Confidence Tools 

Kristin R. Wildsmith, Ph. D. (Genentech):
Skyline & Panorama Case Study: Targeted proteomics enables Alzheimer’s disease biomarker development 

Christopher M. Colangelo, Ph. D. (Yale University):
The Integration of Skyline, Panorama, and LabKey Server Interface for R to Analyze the 2013-2014 ABRF sPRG Research Group Study 

Jeffrey Whiteaker, Ph. D. (Paulovich Lab, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center):
CPTAC Assay Portal: a community web-based repository for well-characterized quantitative targeted proteomics assays 

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Status of the Skyline open-source software project five years after its inception 


  

2013 - Minneapolis, MN

June 9, 2013

Joseph Brown, Ph. D. (Smith Lab, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory):
Effective design and analysis of multiplexed quantitative SRM data with Skyline

Christine Carapito, Ph. D. (IPHC/CNRS/University of Strasbourg, France):
Developing, transferring, sharing, combining, and bridging global and targeted quantitative methods and data in a platform-independent manner with Skyline

Josh Eckels (LabKey Software):
Panorama: targeted proteomics repository software for Skyline

Jarrett D. Egertson (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Application of data independent acquisition techniques optimized for improved precursor specificity

Andy Hoofnagle, MD, Ph. D. (University of Washington):
Using Skyline for Lipidomics

Jacob D. Jaffe, Ph. D. (Carr Lab, The Broad Institute):
Discovery to Targets for a Phosphoproteomic Signature Assay: One-stop shopping in Skyline

Brendan MacLean (MacCoss Lab, University of Washington):
Status of the Skyline open-source software project five years after its inception

Brett Phinney, Ph. D. (UC Davis Genome Center):
Using Skyline to analyze the SPRG2013-2014 Targeted Proteomics Standard

Matthew J. Rardin, Ph.D. (Buck Institute for Research on Aging):
Label free quantitation of proteomic data using MS1 Filtering and MS/MSALL with SWATH acquisition

Olga Shubert (Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zürich):
Development and application of assays for targeted mass spectrometric analysis of the complete proteome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis


  

2012 - Vancouver, BC

May 20, 2012

Jeffrey Whiteaker, Ph.D. (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
Developing quantitative assays for biomarker development

Andrew B. Stergachis (University of Washington)
Rapid empirical identification of optimal peptides for targeted proteomics

Christina Ludwig, Ph.D. (ETH Zürich)
Pinpointing phosphorylation sites using Selected Reaction Monitoring and Skyline

Susan E. Abbatiello, Ph.D. (Proteomics Platform at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)
Effectively Dealing with Transition Selection and Data Analysis for Multiplexed Quantitative SRM-MS Assays across Multiple Vendor Instruments

J. Will Thompson, Ph.D. (Duke Proteomics Core)
Using Skyline to Monitor Long-Term Performance Metrics of High-Resolution Mass Spectrometers

Birgit Schilling, Ph.D. (Buck Institute)
Platform Independent and Label-free Quantitation of Protein Acetylation and phosphorylation using MS1 Extracted Ion Chromatograms in Skyline

Jarrett D. Egertson (University of Washington)
Multiplexed Data Independent Acquisition for Comparative Proteomics

Brendan MacLean (University of Washington)
Status of the Skyline open-source software project four years after its inception

 




Publications


If you use Skyline in your experiments, please cite our Bioinformatics 2010 application note, or the more recent and comprehensive Pino, Mass Spectrometry Reviews 2017 paper, listed below.
If you use Skyline for small molecule research, please cite our Journal of Proteome Research 2020 paper, listed below.
If you use Skyline for calibrated quantification, please cite our Clinical Chemistry 2017 letter, listed below.
If you use Skyline MS1 filtering, please cite our Mollecular Cellular Proteomics 2012 paper, listed below.
If you use Skyline for collision energy optimization, please cite our Analytical Chemistry 2010 paper, listed below.

Citation counts below as of April 9, 2024.

Please feel free to download the Skyline logo vector graphics and use them in your papers to illustrate your use of Skyline for data analysis.

Peer reviewed manuscripts:

  • MacLean, Bioinformatics 2010 paper (cited by 4,661)
    Skyline: An Open Source Document Editor for Creating and Analyzing Targeted Proteomics Experiments
    [abstract][pdf]
  • Pino, Mass Spectrometry Reviews 2017 paper (cited by 597)
    The Skyline ecosystem: Informatics for quantitative mass spectrometry proteomics
    [abstract][full-text]
  • Tsantilas, Journal of Proteome Research 2024 paper
    A Framework for Quality Control in Quantitative Proteomics
    [abstract][full-text]
  • Marsh, Journal of Proteome Research 2022 paper (cited by 6)
    Skyline Batch: An Intuitive User Interface for Batch Processing with Skyline
    [abstract][full-text]
  • Adams, Journal of Proteome Research 2020 paper (cited by 305)
    Skyline for Small Molecules: A Unifying Software Package for Quantitative Metabolomics
    [abstract][full-text]
  • Rohde, Bioinformatics 2020 paper (cited by 5)
    Audit Logs to enforce document integrity in Skyline & Panorama
    [abstract][full-text]
  • MacLean, JASMS 2018 paper (cited by 75)
    Using Skyline to Analyze Data-Containing Liquid Chromatography, Ion Mobility Spectrometry, and Mass Spectrometry Dimensions
    [abstract][pdf]
  • Henderson, Clinical Chemistry 2017 letter (cited by 49)
    Skyline Performs as Well as Vendor Software in the Quantitative Analysis of Serum 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D and Vitamin D Binding Globulin
    [abstract][full-text]
  • Bereman, Journal of Proteome Research 2016 paper (cited by 63)
    An Automated Pipeline to Monitor System Performance in Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry Proteomic Experiments
    [article]
  • Sharma, Journal of Proteome Research 2014 paper (cited by 220)
    Panorama: A Targeted Proteomics Knowledge Base
    [article]
  • Sharma, Mollecular & Cellular Proteomics 2018 paper (cited by 204)
    Panorama Public: A public repository for quantitative data sets processed in Skyline
    [article]
  • Broudy, Killeen, Bioinformatics 2014 paper (cited by 37)
    A framework for installable external tools in Skyline
    [abstract]
  • Schilling, Analytical Chemistry 2015 paper (cited by 105)
    Multiplexed, Scheduled, High-Resolution Parallel Reaction Monitoring on a Full Scan QqTOF Instrument with Integrated Data-Dependent and Targeted Mass Spectrometric Workflows.
    [abstract]
  • Egertson, Nature Protocols 2015 paper (cited by 233)
    Multiplexed peptide analysis using data-independent acquisition and Skyline
    [abstract]
  • Abbatiello, Mollecular Cellular Proteomics 2015 paper (cited by 197)
    Large-scale inter-laboratory study to develop, analytically validate and apply highly multiplexed, quantitative peptide assays to measure cancer-relevant proteins in plasma
    [abstract]
  • Egertson, Nature Methods 2013 paper (cited by 341
    Multiplexed MS/MS for improved data-independent acquisition
    [abstract]
  • Abbatiello, Mollecular Cellular Proteomics 2013 paper (cited by 130)
    Design, Implementation, and Multi-Site Evaluation of a System Suitability Protocol for the Quantitative Assessment of Instrument Performance in LC-MRM-MS
    [abstract]
  • Schilling, Mollecular Cellular Proteomics 2012 paper (cited by 496)
    Platform independent and label-free quantitation of proteomic data using MS1 extracted ion chromatograms in Skyline. Application to protein acetylation and phosphorylation
    [abstract]
  • Choi, Journal of Proteome Research 2017 paper (cited by 37)
    ABRF Proteome Informatics Research Group (iPRG) 2015 Study: Detection of Differentially Abundant Proteins in Label-Free Quantitative LC-MS/MS Experiments.
    [abstract]
  • Sherrod, Journal of Proteome Research 2012 paper (cited by 81)
    Label-Free Quantitation of Protein Modifications by Pseudo-Selected Reaction Monitoring with Internal Reference Peptides
    [abstract]
  • Escher, Proteomics 2012 paper (cited by 624)
    Using iRT, a normalized retention time for more targeted measurement of peptides
    [abstract]
  • Bereman, Proteomics 2012 paper (cited by 133)
    The development of selected reaction monitoring methods for targeted proteomics via empirical refinement
    [abstract]
  • Stergachis, Nature Methods 2011 paper (cited by 144)
    Rapid empirical discovery of optimal peptides for targeted proteomics
    [abstract]
  • MacLean, Analytical Chemistry 2010 paper (cited by 267)
    Effect of Collision Energy Optimization on the Measurement of Peptides by Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) Mass Spectrometry
    [abstract]
  • Prakash, Journal of Proteome Research 2009 paper (cited by 182)
    Expediting the Development of Targeted SRM Assays: Using Data from Shotgun Proteomics to Automate Method Development
    [abstract]

Publications featuring Panorama:

  • PanoramaWeb Publications Page
    [link]

Presentations and posters:

  • MacLean, ASMS 2020 Presentation
    Skyline integrates the Prosit prediction server for proteome-wide DIA data analysis using on-demand fragment intensity and iRT prediction
    [pdf] [video]
  • Pratt, ... MacLean, ASMS 2020
    Skyline Support for Proteome-wide Data Analysis of Bruker timsTOF dia-PASEF Acquisition
    [pdf]
  • Rohde, ASBMB 2019, Poster
    Integration of the deep learning prediction tool Prosit into Skyline for high-accuracy, on-demand fragment intensity and iRT prediction 
    [pdf]
  • Rohde, Chupalov, ASMS 2019, Poster
    Audit Logs to enforce document integrity in Skyline and Panorama
    [pdf]
  • Pratt, ASMS 2019 Poster
    Metabolomic Profiling of Small Molecule Ion Mobility Assisted Data Independent Acquisition Data Using Skyline
    [pdf
  • Pratt, ASMS 2017 Poster
    Recent Advances in Skyline: Further Improvements in Small Molecule Targets and Ion Mobility
    [pdf
  • Pratt, ASMS 2015 Poster
    Recent Advances in Skyline: Small Molecule Targets and Ion Mobility Filtering
    [pdf]
  • Thompson, MSACL 2015 Poster
    Skyline for small molecules: a flexible tool for cross-platform LC-MS/MS method creation and data analysis for metabolomics
    [pdf]
  • MacLean, ASMS 2014 Presentation
    Rapid Processing of Large Scale Quantitative Proteomics Projects: Integration of Skyline with the CHORUS Cloud
    [pdf]
  • Amodei, ASMS 2014 Poster
    A multi-site, Skyline-based comparison of DIA peptide detection and statistical confidence tools
    [pdf]
  • MacLean, ASMS 2013 Poster
    Integration of mProphet chromatogram peak identification probability model into Skyline
    [pdf]
  • Amodei, ASMS 2013 Poster
    An Instrument-Independent Demultiplexing Method for Computationally Improving the Specificity of Data-Independent Acquisition
    [pdf]
  • Eckels, ASMS 2013 Poster
    Sharing targeted proteomics assays using Skyline and Panorama
    [pdf]
  • MacLean, ASMS 2012 Presentation
    Targeted Proteomics Quantitative Analysis of Data Independent Acquisition MS/MS in Skyline
    [pdf] [PowerPoint] [video]
  • Sharma, ASMS 2012 Poster
    Panorama: A private repository of targeted proteomics assays for Skyline
    [pdf]
  • Egertson, ASMS 2012 Poster
    Multiplexed Data Independent Acquisition for Comparative Proteomics
    [pdf]
  • MacLean, ASMS 2011 Poster
    Skyline: Targeted Proteomics with Extracted Ion Chromatograms from Full-Scan Mass Spectra
    [pdf]
  • Tomazela, ASMS 2011 Poster
    Developing system suitability criteria and evaluation methods for proteomics experiments
    [pdf]
  • MacLean, ASMS 2010 Presentation
    Skyline: Sharing SRM/MRM Method Creation and Results Analysis Across Laboratories and Instrument Platforms
    [pdf]
  • Tomazela, ASMS 2010 Poster
    Effect of Collision Energy Optimization on the Measurement of Peptides by Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) Mass Spectrometry
    [pdf]
  • MacLean, ASMS 2009 Poster
    Automated Creation and Refinement of Complex Scheduled SRM Methods for Targeted Proteomics
    [pdf]

Invited reviews:

  • US HUPO News 2011 TechTalk - Skyline: A Bridge Between Discovery and Targeted Proteomics
    [article]



ASMS 2012 WOA am MacLean Presentation


Watch the video recording of Brendan MacLean's ASMS 2012 presentation Targeted Proteomics Quantitative Analysis of Data Independent Acquisition MS/MS in Skyline




ASMS 2020 WOA am MacLean Presentation


Watch the video recording of Brendan MacLean's ASMS 2020 presentation Skyline integrates the Prosit prediction server for proteome-wide DIA data analysis using on-demand fragment intensity and iRT prediction
[slides]




Press


 

    • Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (Volume 27, Number 11) lead front page story about Michael MacCoss receiving the 2015 ASMS Biemann Award from his work in bioinformatics and software for "omics" researchers (Skyline and Panorama). 
      [html] [cover pdf]
    • NCI eProtein feature
      Viewing the Targeted Proteomics Horizon with Skyline
      [html]
    • Nature Methods chooses targeted proteomics as Method of the Year in 2012
      Targeted proteomics
      [html]
    • NCI eProtein feature
      Open Source Software Tool Skyline Reaches Key Agreement with Mass Spectrometer Vendors
      [html]
    • PROTEOMICS article
      Free computational resources for designing selected reaction monitoring transitions
      [abstract]
    • Q-MOP Symposium review
      Quantitative proteomics: A central technology for systems biology
      [html]
    • NCI eProtein spotlight
      Skyline: Building a Bigger Net for Targeted Proteomics
      [pdf]



Awards


2016

  • Mike wins HUPO award Professor Mike MacCoss awarded the HUPO Discovery in Proteomic Sciences Award for his developments in methodology and software for the quantitative analysis of complex protein mixtures. The focus of his lab is the development of high-throughput quantitative proteomic methods and their application to model organisms. To enable this research, Mike and his research team have developed a software program Skyline -- a free, openly available software package for the design and interpretation of targeted proteomics experiments -- which as had a remarkable impact and is widely adopted within the proteomics community. This has placed Mike as a leader in the field of quantitative proteomics. [pdf]

  • Brendan MacLean wins inaugural Gilbert S. Omenn Computational Proteomics Award - In 2016, US HUPO announced the Gilbert S. Omenn Award for computational proteomics and the first recipient was no other than the MacCoss Lab's own Skyline Principal Developer, Brendan MacLean. The Omenn award recognizes the specific achievements of scientists that have developed bioinformatics, computational, statistical methods and/or software used by the proteomics community.

2015

  • Dr. Mike MacCoss wins ASMS Biemann Award for 2015 Professor Michael MacCoss received the 2015 American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Biemann Award, in part, from the creation of software for "omics" researchers.  In their award announcement, ASMS cited Mike's philosophy on making high quality, freely available software -- Skyline and Panorama -- and providing for their long term support. This has enables many others to greatly benefit and has advanced the field of proteomic sciences, ASMS stated. 
    [html]



License Agreement


ADDENDUM TO APACHE LICENSE

To the best of our ability we deliver this software to you under the Apache 2.0 License listed below (the source code is available in the ProteoWizard project).  This software does, however, depend on other software libraries which place further restrictions on its use and redistribution.  By accepting the license terms for this software, you agree to comply with the restrictions imposed on you by the license agreements of the software libraries on which it depends:

Agilent MHDAC and MIDAC Libraries
ALGLIB numerical analysis and data processing library
Bruker Baf2Sql and TDF Development Kit Libraries
SCIEX WIFF File Reader Library
Shimadzu DataReader and IoModule Libraries
Thermo Scientific RawFileReader Library
Waters MassLynxRaw Library
Mascot Parser
 
NOTE:  If you do not plan to redistribute this software yourself, then you are the "end-user" in the above agreements.

 

Apache License
Version 2.0, January 2004
http://www.apache.org/licenses/
 

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END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS




Other


Other topics that may be of interest:




How You Can Help


At the MacCoss Lab, we believe that a strong community around an open source software project can produce world-class software.  Examples abound: Firefox, Linux and projects of the Apache Software Foundation.  We are working hard to see Skyline and its parent project, ProteoWizard, live up to the standard set by these examples.  Already our efforts have been greatly aided by others inspired by our initial work.  We encourage anyone who feels they benefit from the Skyline project to consider helping improve and sustain it in any of the following ways:

  1. Sign up as a registered user of the software to help us prove the broad appeal of our software and keep development and support funded.
  2. Post a statement explaining how your work has benefitted from using Skyline to encourage further growth in the project community.
  3. Publish or present your targeted proteomics work citing the Skyline manuscript, using Skyline graphs in your figures, and/or making your Skyline documents publicly available.
  4. Help a friend or collaborator get started using Skyline.
  5. Post to the support board your questions and comments.
  6. Take the time to work through an issue with the Skyline team and explain how the software might be improved to avoid others encountering it.
  7. Contribute a tutorial or tip.  Follow the example of existing tutorials and tips, and explain how to use features that are important to you.
  8. Contribute development time to the open source project, if you are a programmer.

Join the growing community of contributors that have helped to make Skyline what it is today.




Get Involved


Jobs
The Skyline jobs board helps employers and job seekers interested in Skyline, Panorama and targeted mass spectrometry connect.

Contribute
Make a tax-deductible contribution to the Skyline project this year through the University of Washington Foundation

Comment
See what the community is saying about Skyline - and add your statement!

Share
Other ways you can help




3rd-Party Software


Software Support: 

The following organizations have made crucial software contributions to the Skyline project.

SCIEX Agilent Technologies
Shimadzu
Thermo Scientific Waters
 
The Most Intelligent Add-In To Visual Studio
A cross-platform numerical analysis and data processing library Subversion plug-in for Visual Studio



Related


Dashboard
Skyline adoption and use information

Panorama
Create a new project for your lab or group on PanoramaWeb hosted by the University of Washington

Or, host your own Panorama installation by joining the Panorama Partners Program

ProteoWizard
Skyline source code is available under Apache 2.0 License and part of the ProteoWizard project (mzML and mzXML conversion)

Spectral Library Links
NIST
PeptideAtlas
SWATHAtlas
Prosit




Funding


Current Financial Support:

Title: Seattle Quant: A Resource for the Skyline Software Ecosystem
R24 GM141156-01 (PI: MacCoss)                5/1/2021 – 4/30/2026
The grant provides support for the continued development, maintenance, instruction, and support of the entire Skyline Software Ecosystem for targeted mass spectrometry data processing, QC, assay development, and discrimination.

Title: Support of Agilent Mass Spectrometers within the Skyline and Panorama Software Projects
Industry Gift from Agilent (PI: MacCoss)           5/1/2012 – 12/31/2024
We are continuing to extend our analytical software tools to support Agilent mass spectrometers.

Title: Support of SCIEX Mass Spectrometers within the Skyline and Panorama Software Projects
Software Engineering Contract from SCIEX (PI: MacCoss)           1/1/2015 – 12/31/2024
We are continuing to extend our analytical software tools to support SCIEX mass spectrometers.

Title: Support of Shimadzu Mass Spectrometers within the Skyline and Panorama Software Projects
Software Engineering Contract from Shimadzu (PI: MacCoss)           1/15/2014 – 1/14/2025
We are continuing to extend our analytical software tools to support Shimadzu mass spectrometers.

Title: Support of Thermo Fisher Mass Spectrometers within the Skyline and Panorama Software Projects
Software Engineering Contract from Thermo Fisher (PI: MacCoss)           3/1/2014 – 2/28/2025
We are continuing to extend our analytical software tools to support Thermo Fisher mass spectrometers.

Title: Support of Waters Mass Spectrometers within the Skyline and Panorama Software Projects
Software Engineering Contract from Waters (PI: MacCoss)           9/1/2013 – 12/31/2024
We are continuing to extend our analytical software tools to support Waters mass spectrometers.

Prior Financial Support:

Title: Skyline Targeted Proteomics Environment
R01 GM103551 (PI: MacCoss)                9/14/2011 – 4/30/2021
The grant provided support for the continued development and maintenance of the widely used Skyline targeted proteomics software tool. It was superseded on 5/1/2021 by the Seattle Quant R24.

Title: Support of Bruker Mass Spectrometers within the Skyline and Panorama Software Projects
Software Engineering Contract from Bruker (PI: MacCoss)           8/1/2012 – 1/31/2024
We are continuing to extend our analytical software tools to support Bruker mass spectrometers.

Title: The Chorus Project: A Sustainable Cloud Solution for Mass Spectrometry Data
R01 GM121696 (PI: MacCoss)                      2/1/2016 – 1/31/2021
Large-scale mass spec file storage and pipeline processing. Replaced on 5/1/2021 by the Seattle Quant R24.

Title: Comprehensive Biology: Exploiting the Yeast Genome
P41 GM103533 (PI: MacCoss)                      9/1/2011 – 12/31/2022
This is a biotechnology resource center.  Dr. MacCoss’ role in the center is to develop quantitative mass spectrometry based technology for the measurement of protein dynamics.  This center will support training in the use of Skyline to the proteomics community. Furthermore, it supports the development of a webservices interface to access data within the Yeast Resource Center public data repository via Skyline.

Title: Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures
U54 HG008097 (MPI: Jaffe)                7/1/2014 – 6/30/2020
This is a LINCS program grant to derive molecular signatures resultant from cellular perturbation.  We will develop a repository to disseminate multiplex mass spectrometry based assays via the Skyline client for use on all major mass spectrometry vendors.

Title: Self Correcting Nanoflow LC-MS for Clinical Proteomics
R01 GM107806 (PI: MacCoss)                                                            7/1/13 – 4/30/2017
The primary goal of this project is to improve the quality, reliability, and interlaboratory comparability of peptide mass spectrometry data. We are adding quality control capabilities to the Skyline software tool.  Furthermore, we are improving the interaction of Skyline with the instrument hardware and chromatography system.

Title: Data Acquisition and Analysis Strategies for Improving the Analysis of Peptide Mixtures Using Thermo Fisher Mass Spectrometers
Industry Sponsored Research Agreement (PI: MacCoss)           6/15/2010 – 6/15/2014
We are developing methods of analyzing mass spectrometry data on ThermoFisher mass spectrometers and Pierce reagents using Skyline.  This agreement is renewed yearly and we expect that the funding will be extended.

Title: Validating Protein Pathway Information – Integrating Proteomic Data with Transcriptomic or Metabolomic Data Sets
Industry Gift (PI: MacCoss)                                                              10/1/2011 - 9/31/2012
We are improving the interface between Agilent’s popular expression analysis software GeneSpring GX and Skyline.

Title: Genetic Regulation of Surfactant Deficiency
R01 HL082747 (PI: Cole  PI Subcontract: MacCoss)                        5/1/2011 – 3/31/2012
Goal was to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms that disrupt pulmonary surfactant metabolism.  This project has supported the development of software and methodology for establishing targeted protein assays for Surfactant Protein-B.

Title: Label Free Differential Protein Analysis
University of Pittsburgh Contract                                                  7/1/2011 – 9/15/2011
Bridging funding to support the addition of label free MS1 quantitative analysis capabilities within Skyline.

Title: Clinical Proteomic Technology Assessment for Cancer (CPTAC)
U24 CA126479-S2 (PI: Liebler  PI Subcontract: MacCoss)               8/1/2009 – 7/31/2011
Funding provided to develop software to support the CPTAC centers for targeted proteomics method development and data analysis.




Seattle Quant: A Resource for the Skyline Software Ecosystem


Development on Skyline started in 2008 to fill a critical need for a software tool to enable targeted proteomics experiments. The development of Skyline grew into an entire ecosystem of tools and has since expanded beyond targeted proteomics to support a variety of acquisition methods (e.g. DDA, DIA, PRM, and PASEF) and other molecule types. The Skyline software ecosystem is one of the most widely used software platforms in all of mass spectrometry. The current software and its thriving community create exciting new opportunities for quantitative mass spectrometry. The Skyline project has grown beyond the bounds of a single tool. There are now 17 Skyline external tools that rely on a formalized framework in Skyline, with more in development. Some of these tools have been installed >10,000 times. We have also created the Panorama Knowledgebase and Panorama Public, a platform allowing Skyline users to organize, share, and disseminate processed quantitative proteomics data, as well as tools like AutoQC and Skyline Batch that take advantage of the Skyline command-line interface for automated bulk processing. In this grant, we propose creating a resource that will enable the continued development, maintenance, and support of these community tools and their dissemination within the community. These tools support 1000s of registered users in their basic science, pre-clinical, and translational research. Seattle Quant is a resource funded by the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (R24 GM141156) with the goal to support this community, maintain the tools, and expand the capabilities of the ecosystem of tools. Specifically, Seattle Quant has four aims. 1) Expand our test infrastructure to improve the robustness, stress test the software, confirm compatibility across computer systems, and track performance over time. 2) Improve support for both proteomics and non- proteomics workflows. 3) Improve the collection, sharing, annotation and dissemination of mass spectrometry data and Skyline documents. 4) Provide continued support and training for the Skyline ecosystem.
 



Dashboard


Learn more about the adoption and growth of Skyline use for targeted mass spectrometry around the world.

View the Skyline 500 Report to see how the cities of the world rank for visits to the Skyline web site. The Skyline web site has seen over 39,500 users over the past 6 months, 38% of which came from the United States

Skyline 500

There have been over 187,000 new installations of Skyline since it was first publicly released at ASMS 2009, with 1650 installations on average each month over the past 6 months.

Skyline Installations
* - Individuals may have installed more than once or to multiple computers in this time

 

Skyline version 24.1 was released to great interest (over 19,000 instances in 7 days).

Skyline Current Use
* - Individuals may start multiple instances of Skyline in a day or use a single instance for longer than a week




Team


The following team members have made invaluable, direct contributions to the effort to build Skyline:

Brendan MacLean   Brendan MacLean - principal developer
Brendan worked at Microsoft for 8 years in the 1990s where he was a lead developer and development manager for the Visual C++/Developer Studio Project. Since leaving Microsoft, Brendan has been the Vice President of Engineering for Westside Corporation, Director of Engineering for BEA Systems, Inc., Sr. Software Engineer at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and a founding partner of LabKey Software. In this last position he was one of the key programmers responsible for the Computational Proteomics Analysis System (CPAS), made significant contributions to the development of X!Tandem and the Trans Proteomic Pipeline, and created the LabKey Enterprise Pipeline. Since August, 2008 he has worked as a Sr. Software Engineer within the MacCoss lab and been responsible for all aspects of design, development and support in creating the Skyline Targeted Mass Spec Environment and its growing worldwide user community.
Matthew Chambers   Matthew Chambers - development (ProteoWizard)
Matt has worked in mass spectrometry informatics (mostly proteomics) since 2005; the first ten years he worked for David Tabb and Bing Zhang at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and since then he has continued working as an independent consultant. He has worked in many subfields within MS, including shotgun proteomics database search, sequence tagging, spectral library search, and protein assembly. Along with Darren Kessner (director: Parag Mallick), Matt developed ProteoWizard, a free open-source library for mass spectrometry data processing. Since 2009, he has been its principal developer. The ProteoWizard tool msconvert is widely used for converting mass spectrometry data by users all over the world. For Skyline, he has focused on being able to read data directly from vendor proprietary data formats.
Rita Chupalov   Rita Chupalov development
Rita’s experience with software and computers goes back to a Russian clone of DEC’s PDP-11 in 1991. She finished her degree in Organic Chemistry from Saint-Petersburg State University in 1996 where she wrote her first mass-spectrometry software: identification of halogen isotopic multiplets in low-resolution mass-spectra. Since then she worked for multiple software development companies specializing on database-centric applications, analytics and data warehousing. Her most recent job was with Amazon where she learned big data and cloud technologies.

Brian Connolly   Brian Connolly - IT
Over the years Brian has worked for a number of companies in the Seattle area including Microsoft, BEA Systems and Cray. In 2007 Brian joined LabKey where he wore a number of hats. He helped LabKey's customers design and operate their LabKey Servers and pipelines. He architected and operated all of LabKey's Servers running in the public cloud (AWS and other cloud vendors) and became an expert in FISMA and HIPAA regulations. As part of the Skyline Team, Brian is responsible for managing growth of the PanoramaWeb.org and Skyline.ms servers and helping the team grow its use of the AWS cloud.
Brian Pratt   Brian Pratt - development, support
Brian's computing career extends all the way back to the days of the Apple II and TRS-80. Along the way there have been a couple of startups, with forays into robot-assisted surgery, circuit board manufacturing and test, internet firewalls, and, most recently, mass spec. Brian's proteomics work prior to joining the Skyline team included contributions to TPP, X!Tandem, LabKey's CPAS, and ProteoWizard. He's excited to be on a team of software professionals that value performance, reliability, and usability in the support of science.
Vagisha Sharma   Vagisha Sharma - development, support, documentation (Panorama)
Vagisha got involved with proteomics at UC San Diego where she worked with Prof. Vineet Bafna. During that time she built her first tools for visualizing Mass Spectrometry data while working at ActivX Biosciences. Since moving to Seattle Vagisha has worked on Mass Spectrometry pipelines for the Aebersold group at the Institute for Systems Biology, and developed a data management system while at the University of Washington Proteomics Resource and the Yeast Resource Center. She joined the Skyline team in October, 2011. Vagisha enjoys developing tools that help researchers get stuff done.

Nicholas Shulman   Nicholas Shulman - development
Nick worked from 1995-2000 at Microsoft on the Microsoft Access team, leaving to join Westside Corporation with Brendan to create browser-based database design tools. After Westside was acquired by BEA Systems, Nick created a new graphical JSP designer for Weblogic Workshop, an award winning Integrated Development Environment for enterprise Java applications. At LabKey Corporation, Nick created the flow cytometry module and the graphical query designer. Since March, 2009 he has worked in the Maccoss lab on Skyline and Topograph, a quantitative analysis tool for protein turnover experiments.
Eduardo Armendariz   Eduardo Armendariz - development
Eduardo began his software career in 2013 at Mirth, where he supported and developed the open-source clinical and administrative health data messaging engine, Mirth Connect. In 2016, he joined Amazon, contributing to the launch of Prime Now 3P services and later working on AWS Lambda. Most recently, Eduardo has been at Microsoft, where he designed and developed services to advance Chaos engineering within the Office infrastructure.
Mark Belanger   Mark Belanger - project manager - outreach & user education
Mark had a full career in communications across a number of industries including travel, start-ups, games and more. During that time, he brought technology solutions to legacy businesses and cutting-edge enterprises alike. He implemented a range of web sites, from first-generation web presence to full ecommerce and social platforms, taking companies from the pre-digital era into the modern age. He established email and mobile communication programs, and managed outreach teams and projects. Mark has an MBA in Information Systems from Seattle University. As a project manager for the Skyline team, Mark is responsible for outreach programs, like webinars, courses, and user meetings, foreign language translation, and website presence.

 

Previous contributors:

Previous interns:

  • Yuval Boss - development intern - UW (NOAA, now Amazon)
  • Clark Brace - development intern - UPS
  • Daniel Broudy - development intern - Harvard (now Google, Seattle)
  • John Chilton - development intern - UW
  • Henry Estberg - development intern - UC Santa Cruz (now HashiCorp)
  • Mimi Fung - development intern - UW (now Microsoft)
  • Max Horowitz-Gelb - development intern - U. Wisconsin (now Google, Seattle)
  • Shannon Joyner - development intern - CMU (Cisco Meraki, Cornell, now Afresh)
  • Hanna Kidanemariam - development intern - Dartmouth College (now Microsoft)
  • Alana Killeen - development intern - UW (Microsoft, Dropbox, Nautilus Biotech, now ACLU)
  • Trevor Killeen - development intern - UW (Facebook, now Stripe)
  • Aaron Igra - development intern - Brown
  • Alex MacLean - development intern - Roosevelt High School (Cal Poly CS, Dropbox intern, now NVIDIA)
  • Surya Mani - development intern - Hamilton College (Talus Bio intern)
  • Ali Marsh - development intern - MIT (now Tern)
  • Nate Mercer-Garber - development intern - Northeastern University
  • Rohith Mondavilli - web development intern - Dartmouth College (Apple intern, Facebook intern, now Rippling)
  • Sophie Pallanck - development intern - Western Washington University (now Amazon)
  • Tobias Rohde - development intern - UW (AI2 Incubator intern, now Amazon)
  • Henry Sanford - development intern - UW (Regeneron intern, now Vinogradova lab at Rockefeller University)
  • Pradyoth Vemulapati - development intern - UW (OpenMarket, now Uber)