Mascot is a software search engine that uses mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles.It is used for determining masses of particles, for determining the elemental composition of a sample or molecule, and for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and...

 data to identify protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

s from primary sequence databases.

Many research facilities utilize Mascot, either by private or public server for database searching.

Mascot incorporates code from MOWSE

MOWSE

MOWSE is a method for identification of proteins from the molecular weight of peptides created by proteolytic digestion and measured with mass spectrometry....

, developed by Darryl Pappin and David Perkins at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and licensed from Cancer Research Technology.

The performance of many mass spectrometry software, including Mascot, can be observed in the 2011 iPRG study.