SELDI technology can potentially be used in any application by modifying the SELDI surface. SELDI-TOF-MS is optimal for analyzing low molecular weight proteins (<20 kDa) in a variety of biological materials, such as tissue samples, blood, urine, and serum. This technique is often used in combination with immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry as a diagnostic tool to aid in the detection of biomarkers for diseases, and has also been applied to the diagnosis of cancer and neurological disorders. SELDI-TOF-MS has been used in biomarker discovery for lung, breast, liver, colon, pancreatic, bladder, kidney, cervical, ovarian, and prostate cancers. SELDI technology is most widely used in biomarker discovery to compare protein levels in serum samples from healthy and diseased patients. Serum studies allow for a minimally invasive approach to disease monitoring in patients and are useful in the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's.
SELDI-TOF-MS can also be used in biological applications to detect post-translationally modified proteins and to study phosphorylation states of proteins.