Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Taking the inventory inside single cells

Nature Chemical Biology volume 3, pages 141–142 (2007)Cite this article

Despite having an increasingly accurate parts list for biological cells, much is left to discover about how these parts act together to create functional cells, and how distinct individual cells interact to create functional tissues and organs. Biologists are increasingly aware of the cell-to-cell variability in molecule copy numbers—a trend that is revealed by several new techniques, including one that permits counting molecules in single cells.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Taking the inventory inside single cells.

Kim Caesar

References

  1. Elowitz, M.B., Levine, A.J., Siggia, E.D. & Swain, P.S. Science 297, 1183–1186 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Chubb, J.R., Trcek, T., Shenoy, S.M. & Singer, R.H. Curr. Biol. 16, 1018–1025 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Golding, I., Paulsson, J., Zawilski, S.M. & Cox, E.C. Cell 123, 1025–1036 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Raj, A., Peskin, C.S., Tranchina, D., Vargas, D.Y. & Tyagi, S. PLoS Biol. 4, e309 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cai, L., Friedman, N. & Xie, X.S. Nature 440, 358–362 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Huang, B. et al. Science 315, 81–84 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Blake, W.J. Nature 422, 633–637 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ozbudak, E.M., Thattai, M., Kurtser, I., Grossman, A.D. & van Oudenaarden, A. Nat. Genet. 31, 69–73 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Raser, J.M. & O'Shea, E.K. Science 304, 1811–1814 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Thattai, M. & van Oudenaarden, A. Genetics 167, 523–530 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Wolf, D.M., Vazirani, V.V. & Arkin, A.P. J. Theor. Biol. 234, 227–253 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Blake, W.J. et al. Mol. Cell 24, 853–865 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. G. Balázsi is at the Department of Systems Biology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 7435 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas 77054, USA gbalazsi@mdanderson.org,

    G Balázsi

  2. J.J. Collins is at the Center for BioDynamics and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 44 Cummington Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. jcollins@bu.edu,

    J J Collins

Authors
  1. G Balázsi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J J Collins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Balázsi, G., Collins, J. Taking the inventory inside single cells. Nat Chem Biol 3, 141–142 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0307-141

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0307-141

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing