DNA is the blueprint which gives our cells instructions, but all of our cells have the same set of instructions, so to understand how cells behave differently we need to look at each one more deeply and explore which of the thousands of genetic instructions are turned off and on at any time.
In recent years researchers have studied gene expression by sequencing molecules inside the cells called mRNA, but this is the copy paper that the genetic instructions are written onto, and not the proteins which are built from those instructions. Now, scientists at Helmholtz Munich, the Finsen Laboratory at Rigshospitalet, the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (University of Copenhagen), and the Technical University of Denmark have used a method which looks at the unique combination of proteins being built in each cell at any given moment in its development.
Single-Cell Proteomic Analysis
This so-called single-cell proteomic analysis means bypassing the mRNA intermediates and building a map of the proteins present in each cell during their differentiation from stem cells into mature blood cells. Looking at each cell means that you can find outliers which would otherwise be lost in the average of the sample.
“By integrating RNA and protein measurements into a dynamic model, we can capture the full life cycle of gene expression in single cells. This helps us understand not just what’s written in the genetic script, but how it’s performed in real time. I’m excited about how these cell-resolved protein readouts are increasingly opening entirely new windows into cell biology” says Fabian Theis, Director at the Computational Health Center at Helmholtz Munich.
Learn more about this study in this article from the University of Copenhagen
Original Publication
Furtwängler et al., 2025: Mapping early human blood cell differentiation using single-cell proteomics and transcriptomics. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.adr8785
