Mammalian cells have about 30,000 times as many protein molecules as mRNA molecules, which has major implications in the development of proteomics technologies. We discuss strategies that have been helpful for counting billions of protein molecules by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and suggest that these strategies can benefit single-molecule methods, especially in mitigating the challenges posed by the wide dynamic range of the proteome.
- Michael J. MacCoss
- Javier Antonio Alfaro
- Nikolai Slavov