Single cell proteomics

This piece is an interview with a biochemist at the University of Maryland about a method for finding stem cells and for discovering the chemical messaging that goes on in a single neuron using mass spectroscopy.  “Our functional biological studies on these molecules discovered metabolites capable of reprogramming cell fates, perturbing signaling and even affecting behavior by the whole organism. These outcomes would not have been revealed had only transcripts been measured in the single cells, because the transcripts in our developing embryo do not necessarily correlate with proteins and, especially, metabolites. This example demonstrates how integration of information on the molecular status of cells from chemistry, with functional insight from cell/developmental biology and neuroscience, opens exciting new possibilities to understand molecular programs that cells execute during states of health and disease.”  MORE

Image Credit:  Technology Networks