Transformative opportunities for single-cell proteomics
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Bioengineering, Biotechnology, Cell Biology, Computational Biology, Genomics
- Keywords
- single cell, mass spectrometry, proteomics, diagnosis, biomarkers, causal network inference
- Copyright
- © 2018 Specht et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Transformative opportunities for single-cell proteomics. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26821v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26821v2
Abstract
Many pressing medical challenges - such as diagnosing disease, enhancing directed stem cell differentiation, and classifying cancers - have long been hindered by limitations in our ability to quantify proteins in single cells. Mass-spectrometry (MS) is poised to transcend these limitations by developing powerful methods to routinely quantify thousands of proteins and proteoforms across many thousands of single cells. We outline specific technological developments and ideas that can increase the sensitivity and throughput of single cell MS by orders of magnitude and usher in this new age. These advances will transform medicine and ultimately contribute to understanding biological systems on an entirely new level.
Author Comment
This perspective outlines specific ideas and technologies that can realize transformative opportunities in single-cell proteomics by mass-spectrometry. We added references and clarifications.