Help understanding MALDI-TOF?

Posted on 2014-11-15 11:01:00 in Chemistry by RORY

I'm learning about proteomics at the moment and I'm trying to understand MALDI-TOF.

I think I understand it all, like how it's meant to work and all, except I'm not too sure about what those ions actually are.

I know an ion is an atom or a molecule where the electrons don't equal the number of protons, that is to say that they've gained or lost an electron which makes them negatively or positively charged respectively.

However, am I to understand that the proteins that are being analyzed are themselves these ions. That is to say that the polymer of amino acids that make up the protein (an enzyme for example) of interest remains intact during the process but losses an electron (becomes positively charged)? And that is what is detected?

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