Most proteomics researchers and industry watchers are probably familiar with ICAT, a tagging technology developed by Ruedi Aebersold’s former laboratory at the University of Washington. By extension, many in the field are probably familiar with the typical complaints — warranted or not — associated with the ICAT reagent technology: It requires a steep learning curve, its affinity selection criteria are arbitrary, and perhaps most importantly, its cost is high.

So where are the alternatives?