New book about mass spectrometry for researchers
Researchers at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet, recently published a book “Mass Spectrometry Based Single Cell Proteomics”, for researchers planning to perform SCP analysis.
Congratulations on your new book! What is the book about?
“The book is about the recent breakthrough development in mass spectrometry, and proteomics of single cells. Single-cell proteomics (SCP) is something that even 10 years ago was thought to be impossible in the near future, and the first SCP reports 6-7 years ago have been met with skepticism. Yet today dozens of labs have mastered this technique, mostly through trials and (lots of) errors. To disseminate best practices and facilitate their wider adaptation is the purpose of this book. It encompasses 15 detailed descriptions and protocols from the SCP pioneers, including MBB Proteomics Biomedicum facility”, says co-author Roman Zubarev, Professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet.
Who do you see as the typical reader of the book?
“This book is addressed to thousands of proteomics labs around the world, most of which will soon or later attempt to perform SCP analysis. It is also addressed to biomedical scientists, who as potential SCP users may want to better understand the SCP requirements and, yes, its current limitations”, says Roman.
How can the knowledge conveyed in the book contribute to improving human health?
While SCP is still often considered to be a “solution in search of a (worthy) problem”, there is no doubt that it is an essential part of future biomedical research. Granted, SCP is not as deep as single cell transcriptomics analysis, but proteomics reflects not only protein expression, but also protein degradation. The two processes are already equally important in homeostasis, while in all programmed cell death processes protein degradation dominates. This makes proteomics analysis irreplaceable in studying heterogeneous cell populations, such as in cancer, as well as the manifolds of cell responses in drug development, says Roman.
Read more about the book here
“Mass Spectrometry Based Single Cell Proteomics” by Akos Vegvari, Jaakko S. Teppo, Roman A. Zubarev