Pioneering Proteomics ‘Mousetraps’: Webcasts Showcase Cutting-edge Researchers

[paul-humphrey]

The development of proteomics has been an amazing story over the last few decades. The transition from a classical, largely gel-based approach to the current usage of high-throughput mass spectrometry-based techniques is enabling tremendous advances in research such as the Human Proteome Project – an ongoing collaboration paralleling the Human Genome Project — intending to map the entire human proteome.

Several advances in mass spectrometry have hugely enabled the growth of the mass spectrometry approach. John B. Fenn contributed to the development of electrospray ionization for the analysis of large biomolecules and Koichi Tanaka similarly demonstrated the ionization of large biomolecules in a variation of the MALDI MS experiment. Both shared half of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work (the other half was awarded to Kurt Wüthrich for the related use of NMR).

Mass spectrometry hardware has also made huge advances with the invention of the Orbitrap mass spectrometer by Alexander Makarov and its subsequent development into an ever-growing family of commercial analyzers by Thermo Fisher Scientific. Although the Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap™ is applicable to multiple analytical markets, its largest impact has been in the field of proteomics with its ability to generate high-resolution, accurate mass data with a high dynamic range and high sensitivity.

Parallel advances across the entire workflow from improved nano-flow columns to artificial intelligence empowering the data analysis also are playing their part to further facilitate proteomics research. At the end of the day, all these developments are simply building a better mousetrap – you still need to catch your mouse – which is where the pioneers come in.

As a supplier to the scientific research community, Thermo Fisher Scientific is a solution provider and manufacturer. Our oft-stated corporate mission is “to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.” It’s the scientists and technicians using these tools who are really making the differences to the world we live in.

To acknowledge that, and recognize the great work being done, we began a series of webinars titled Pioneers of Omics, which provides a platform for sharing the work of researchers in a range of proteomics and related areas. In particular, we wanted to showcase the work of early career researchers who are often doing cutting edge experiments. Each session takes a specific sub-field of omics research and illustrates some of exciting recent work being undertaken from around the world. Previous topics included spatial omics, cancer research, metabolomics and biomarker discovery and these are all available to view on demand here.

We are planning on continuing the series throughout the year, so watch for new and hopefully exciting topics in the future, and if there is a topic you would like to see covered — or better yet — if you have some pioneering research you’d like to share, please reach out to me at paul.humphrey@thermofisher.com.

Predicting the future is always a challenging and risky business, and looking forward from a few decades ago it would have been near impossible to predict all the developments we have seen, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that the next few years and beyond will see many more amazing discoveries.