Q&A: How single-cell and spatial proteomics reveal proteins' nuanced roles in health and disease

When Steve Carr, senior director of the Proteomics Platform at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, began working in proteomics, the field was able to detect only the most abundant proteins in a given sample. In recent years, increasingly sensitive mass spectrometers have paved the way for enormous progress: scientists are now able to detect and analyze nearly all proteins expressed in a sample, including ones present only in miniscule amounts.