At HUPO, I have been repeatedly asked: "Why analyze single cells when you can identify more peptides in bulk samples?"
Science
Direct causal mechanisms
Understanding biological systems: In search of direct causal mechanisms The advent of DNA-microarrays spurred a vigorous effort to reverse engineer biological networks. Recently, these efforts have been reinvigorated by the availability of RNA-seq data from perturbed and unperturbed single cells. In the talk below, I discuss the opportunities and limitations of using such data for … Continue reading Direct causal mechanisms
Evaluating preprints
I am hugely enthusiastic for communicating research by preprints. So naturally, I am happy to see when the president and strategic advisers of one of the most elite funding institutes embraces preprints: https://twitter.com/slavovLab/status/1095734247384641541 For centuries, publishing a scientific article was just about sharing the results. More recently, publishing research articles in a journal has served … Continue reading Evaluating preprints
Single-cell analysis
The success of imaging technologies The molecular and functional differences among the cells making our bodies have been appreciated for many decades. Yet, the tools to study them were very limited. In the last couple of decades, we have began developing increasingly powerful technologies for molecular single-cell measurements. Currently, the most widely used high-throughput methods … Continue reading Single-cell analysis
Missed citations
I am sorry for not referencing your paper, but it would have undermined the novelty of our work. You know how Nature editors think.
Why I love preprints
The most frequent argument revolves around fear of losing priority of discovery. My usual question is: Have you ever felt that one of your peer reviewed papers is not cited and given credit when it should have been?
Single-cell proteomics
Ever since my lab posted the SCoPE-MS preprint, I have been repeatedly asked about the future potential and the cost of quantifying proteins by high-throughput mass-spectrometry in single cells. I will summarize a few thoughts that hopefully will be helpful and will reduce email traffic. Why quantify proteins and PTMs in single cells? Single-cell RNA-seq … Continue reading Single-cell proteomics
Magnanimity pays off
Francis Crick exceeded the brilliance of his double helix model by this magnanimous act:
Premature human engineering
The news buzz alive with excitement about human genome editing, even human germline engineering. Successful germline engineering requires (1) a technology for editing DNA safely and (2) knowledge of what to edit and how to edit based on understanding the underlying biology. We are approaching (1), which is the easier part; we do not have (2), … Continue reading Premature human engineering
Deceptive Numbers
You want to estimate an important quantity. You compute an exact number purporting to estimate it. You compute another exact number purporting to estimate it. The two numbers differ significantly. The only logical conclusion is that these estimates are less exact than they seem. This clearly seems to be the case with the notion of … Continue reading Deceptive Numbers
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