2025
April 2025, Congratulations to Amirhossein Sadeghi and co-first authors for recent GeroScience Journal Paper. Long-term dietary allyl isothiocyanate, a TRPA1 agonist, ameliorates cardiac fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction in aged mice. This study shows that long-term dietary activation of TRPA1 with allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) improves diastolic function, increases vagal tone, and reduces cardiac fibrosis in aged mice. These effects suggest that TRPA1 activation may be a promising strategy to prevent age-related diastolic dysfunction.
April 2025, Congratulations to co-first authors, Qianjie Wang and Qianyi Wang for recent Analytical Chemistry Journal Paper. Does Native Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry Maintain the Structural Topology of Protein Complexes? This study evaluates how well native capillary zone electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (nCZE-MS) preserves protein complex structures compared to traditional native MS. Using surface-induced dissociation (SID) on two model complexes, the researchers found that nCZE-MS produced fragmentation patterns highly similar to direct infusion, suggesting that nCZE-MS maintains native-like topology. It also showed potential to resolve subtle structural differences.
April 2025, Congratulations to Amirhossein Sadeghi and co-first author for recent Chemical Engineering Journal Paper. AI-driven prediction of cardio-oncology biomarkers through protein corona analysis. This study leverages protein corona profiling combined with mass spectrometry, machine learning, and causality analysis to identify potential dual biomarkers in cardio-oncology, focusing on prostate cancer and atherosclerosis. Notably, CCT7 and TBXAS1 were identified as promising biomarkers for both metastatic prostate cancer and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, offering insights for early detection and targeted therapy.
March 2025, Congratulations to coauthors and Amirhossein Sadeghi for recent Geroscience Paper. Long-term dietary allyl isothiocyanate, a TRPA1 agonist, ameliorates cardiac fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction in aged mice. This study reveals that long-term dietary activation of TRPA1 using allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) improves diastolic function and reduces cardiac fibrosis in aged mice, highlighting TRPA1’s protective role in cardiac aging. Proteomics analysis links these benefits to changes in collagen metabolism, ECM-receptor interaction, and fatty acid metabolism, suggesting molecular pathways through which TRPA1 activation may exert therapeutic effects.
March 2025, Congratulations to Reyhane T Nimavard, Amirhossein Sadeghi and Guijie Zhu for recent Journal of American Society for Mass Spectrometry (JASMS) Paper. Top-Down Proteomic Profiling of Protein Corona by High-Throughput Capillary Isoelectric Focusing-Mass Spectrometry. This study presents a high-throughput and reproducible cIEF-MS/MS platform for top-down proteomic analysis of the nanoparticle protein corona, achieving robust proteoform-level resolution in just 30 minutes per run. By identifying up to 102 proteoforms per disease-related protein, the method offers deep molecular insights into nanobiointeractions, paving the way for improved diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nanomedicine.
January 2025, Congratulations to coauthors and Dr. Sun for recent Proteomics Review Paper. The role of protein corona in advancing plasma proteomics. This viewpoint emphasizes the emerging role of the protein corona as a tool to enhance plasma proteome depth, particularly by enriching low-abundance proteins and simplifying sample preparation. It also highlights the integration of top-down proteomics for proteoform-specific analysis, presenting a promising strategy for advancing personalized diagnostics and overcoming limitations in conventional plasma proteomics.
January 2025, Congratulations to Qianjie Wang and Qianyi Wang for recent Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry Paper. Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry for Top-Down Proteomics. This work highlights the unique advantages of CE-MS in top-down proteomics, emphasizing its high separation efficiency and sensitivity for proteoform analysis in complex biological samples. It offers a timely review of the method’s challenges, solutions, and impactful applications, positioning CE-MS as a critical tool for advancing biomarker discovery and functional proteomics.
January 2025, Congratulations to coauthors and Tian Xu for recent Journal of Proteome Research Paper. TopDIA: A Software Tool for Top-Down Data-Independent Acquisition Proteomics. This study introduces TopDIA, the first dedicated software for proteoform identification using top-down data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (TD-DIA-MS), addressing a major gap in top-down proteomics. By enabling deconvolution of complex TD-DIA-MS spectra into pseudo MS/MS data, TopDIA significantly enhances proteoform and protein identifications compared to traditional TD-DDA-MS, marking a pivotal advancement in intact protein analysis.
2024
November 2024, Congratulations to Qianyi Wang and Qianjie Wang for their recent Angewandte Chemie International Paper. Native Proteomics by Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry. This study presents a major advancement in native proteomics by enabling the detection of large proteoforms and protein complexes (up to 400 kDa) directly from complex samples using native CZE coupled with UHMR Orbitrap MS. It achieves high sensitivity and minimal sample consumption, marking a technical breakthrough for analyzing native proteomes at scale.
November 2024, Congratulations to coauthors and Amirhossein Sadeghi and Qianyi Wang for their recent Nature Communications. Paper. Small molecule modulation of protein corona for deep plasma proteome profiling. The authors report on the use of small molecules to change the protein and proteoform patterns of protein corona on otherwise identical nanoparticles, which can be leveraged to significantly enhance the depth of plasma proteome profiling.
November 2024, Congratulations to Qianjie Wang, Guangyao Gao, Fei Fang, and Qianyi Wang for their recent Analytica Chimica Actas. Paper. A simple and efficient approach for preparing cationic coating with tunable electroosmotic flow for capillary zone electrophoresis-mass spectrometry-based top-down proteomics. This paper considers the PAMAPTAC coating as a valuable alternative to the LPA coating to advance CZE-MS-based TDP towards high-resolution separation and highly reproducible measurement of proteoforms in complex samples.
November 2024, Congratulations to Fei Fang and Tian Xu for their recent Journal of Proteome Research paper. A pilot study for deciphering post-translational modifications and proteoforms of tau protein by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry This study pioneers the combined use of CZE-MS/MS and RPLC-MS/MS to enhance the identification of phosphorylation sites on tau-0N3R, revealing 30% more sites than RPLC alone. It also introduces a native-like cIEF-MS approach to profile tau proteoforms and detect phosphorylated dimers, offering new insights into tau PTMs and oligomerization relevant to Alzheimer’s disease.
October 2024, Congratulations to Guijie Zhu and Seyed Amirhossein Sadeghi for their recent Chemical Communications. Paper. Deciphering nanoparticle protein coronas by capillary isoelectric focusing-mass spectrometry-based top-down proteomics. This paper presents the first example of top-down proteomics (TDP) measurement of the protein corona using capillary isoelectric focusing-mass spectrometry, identifying seventy proteoforms of 16 cancer-related genes.
September 2024, Congratulations to Fei Fang and Guangyao Gao for their recent Proteomics. paper. Combining SDS-PAGE to capillary zone electrophoresis-tandem mass spectrometry for high-resolution top-down proteomics analysis of intact histone proteoforms. This study introduces a novel integration of PEPPI-MS with CZE-MS/MS for the first high-resolution top-down characterization of histone proteoforms. The dual separation approach enabled the identification of over 200 histone proteoforms, showcasing strong potential for detailed epigenetic analysis through combinatorial PTM profiling.
September 2024, Congratulations to coauthors and Dr. Sun for recent PLOS GENETICS paper. PNLDC1 catalysis and postnatal germline function are required for piRNA trimming, LINE1 silencing, and spermatogenesis in mice. From a mass spectrometry perspective, this study underscores the potential for future application of MS-based proteomics to investigate the endogenous expression, post-translational modifications, and potential interacting partners of PNLDC1 during spermatogenesis. While not the primary focus here, integrating MS could provide deeper molecular insights into the regulation and activity of the PNLDC1 enzyme across developmental stages and piRNA populations.
September 2024, Congratulations to AmirHossein Sadeghi for his recent ACS Nano paper. Mass Spectrometry-Based Top-Down Proteomics in Nanomedicine: Proteoform-Specific Measurement of Protein Corona. This study introduces a pioneering top-down proteomics (TDP) approach to characterize proteoforms in the nanoparticle protein corona, addressing the limitations of conventional bottom-up proteomics. By identifying approximately 900 proteoforms, including modified and truncated variants of key protein biomarkers, the work provides unprecedented molecular-level insight into nanoparticle–biomolecule interactions.
July 2024, Congratulations to Tian Xu, Qianjie Wang, and Qianyi Wang for their recent Analytical Methods. Review Paper. Mass spectrometry-intensive top-down proteomics: an update on technology advancements and biomedical applications. This review highlights recent developments in TDP and its applications in understanding protein functions and discovering novel biomarkers for disease diagnosis and therapy.
May 2024, Congratulations to Fei Fang and Daoyang Chen for their recent iScience. paper. Quantitative proteomics reveals the dynamic proteome landscape of zebrafish embryos during the maternal-to-zygotic transition. They reported the expression dynamics of 5,000 proteins across multiple developmental stages of zebrafish embryos during MZT, representing the most systematic survey of proteome landscape of zebrafish MZT embryos.
March 2024, Congratulations to Jorge Colon Rosado for his recent Journal of American Society for Mass Spectrometry (JASMS) paper. Solid-Phase Microextraction-Aided Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry: Toward Bottom-Up Proteomics of Single Human Cells. He built a reversed-phase-based solid-phase microextraction (RP-SPME)-CZE-MS platform for mass-limited biological samples like single cell proteomics!
February 2024, Congratulations to Qianyi Wang, Fei Fang and Qianjie Wang for recent Proteomics paper. Capillary zone electrophoresis-high field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry-tandem mass spectrometry for top-down characterization of histone proteoforms. This study introduces the first integration of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS), and mass spectrometry for top-down proteomic analysis of histone proteoforms. The CZE-FAIMS-MS/MS platform significantly enhances proteoform identification—achieving up to a 3-fold increase over CZE-MS/MS alone—demonstrating its high sensitivity and potential for comprehensive histone PTM characterization.
January 2024, Congratulations to Amirhossein Sadeghi for his recent Journal of Proteome Research paper. Pilot Evaluation of the Long-Term Reproducibility of Capillary Zone Electrophoresis–Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Top-Down Proteomics of a Complex Proteome Sample. Over 1000 proteoforms were identified per run across 62 runs using one linear polyacrylamide (LPA)-coated separation capillary, highlighting the robustness of the CZE-MS/MS technique!
2023
August 2023, Congratulations to Qianyi for his recent Proteomics paper. Capillary zone electrophoresis-high field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry-tandem mass spectrometry for top-down characterization of histone proteoforms. Great job!
August 2023, Congratulations to Qianjie for her recent Analytical Chemistry paper. Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Top-Down Proteomics of Mouse Brain Integral Membrane Proteins. The proof-of-concept work demonstrates the high potential of CZE-MS/MS for the large-scale TDP of integral membrane proteins.
June 2023, Congratulations to Tian for her recent Analytical Chemistry paper. And it was invited to be on the supplementary cover! Coupling High-Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry with Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Top-Down Proteomics.
April 2023, Congratulations to Qianyi for his recent Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry paper. Way to go! Pilot investigation of magnetic nanoparticle–based immobilized metal affinity chromatography for efficient enrichment of phosphoproteoforms for mass spectrometry–based top-down proteomics.
Feb 2023, Tian Xu passed her doctoral defense on Advancing Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry for Top-down Proteomics: Technical Development and Biological Applications. Congratulations to Dr. Xu!
Jan 2023, Congratulations to Qianjie for being awarded the 2023 American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Graduate Student Travel Awards in ASMS Sanibel Conference!
2022
November 2022, Congratulations to Eli, Tian, and Scott! A new paper about top-down proteomics of cancer cells has been just published online in the journal Science Advances! It is an exciting start for us to study colorectal cancer using top-down proteomics and capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry. It is fantastic teamwork from the Hummon group at OSU, the Liu group at Tulane University, and the Sun group at MSU.Deep top-down proteomics revealed significant proteoform-level differences between metastatic and nonmetastatic colorectal cancer cells
September 2022, Congratulations to Qianjie for her recent Proteomics paper. This is a collaboration with Dr. Peter Lundquist in BMB department at MSU. Large‐scale top‐down proteomics of the Arabidopsis thaliana leaf and chloroplast proteomes.
July 2022, Congratulations to Tian Xu for being awarded the 2022 American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Graduate Student Travel Awards and HPLC 2022 travel grant from the American Chemical Society Subdivision on Chromatography and Separations Chemistry! Well deserved!
June 2022, Congratulations to Tian for her recent Anal Chem paper. Automated Capillary Isoelectric Focusing-Mass Spectrometry with Ultrahigh Resolution for Characterizing Microheterogeneity and Isoelectric Points of Intact Protein Complexes.
February 2022, Congratulations to Rachele for her recent Mol Omics paper. Laser capture microdissection-capillary zone electrophoresis-tandem mass spectrometry (LCM-CZE-MS/MS) for spatially resolved top-down proteomics: a pilot study of zebrafish brain. . 2022 Feb
January 2022, Congratulations to Tian for her recent work, which is featured on the cover of the Anal Methods paper. Improved capillary isoelectric focusing-mass spectrometry method for high-resolution characterization of monoclonal antibody charge variants.
January 2022, Congratulations to Zhichang for his recent Methods Mol Biol paper.Membrane Ultrafiltration-Based Sample Preparation Method and Sheath-Flow CZE-MS/MS for Top-Down Proteomics.
2021
August 2021, Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics launched a new initiative for the CE-MS of intact proteins and protein complexes. The Initiative is being led by Liangliang Sun of Michigan State University, Alexander R. Ivanov of Northeastern University, and Kevin Jooss of Northwestern University.
August 2021, Congratulations to Zhichang for his recent paper on Anal Chem. Nanoparticle-Aided Nanoreactor for Nanoproteomics.
July 2021, Prof. Liangliang Sun has received the Thermo Fisher Scientific Early Career Award from the 37th International Symposium on Microscale Separations and Bioanalysis (MSB 2021). The award is “…the inaugural award given to an individual for remarkable research achievements, with particular consideration being given to the development of new methods, techniques, and high-impact applications in the field of microscale separations and bioanalysis.”
May 2021, Zhichang Yang passed his doctoral defense on DEVELOPING ULTRASENSITVE MS-BASED PROTEOMIC PLATFORMS FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF MASS-LIMITED SAMPLES. Congratulations to Dr. Yang!
June 2021, Check our recent review on Mass Spectrom Rev! Recent advances (2019-2021) of capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for multilevel proteomics.
June 2021, Congratulations to Xiaojing and Tian for their J Am Soc Mass Spectrom paper. This is a collaboration with Prof. Joseph Beckman at e-MSion and Oregon State University. Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Electron-Capture Collision-Induced Dissociation on a Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer for Top-Down Characterization of Intact Proteins.
April 2021, Congratulations to Tian for her recent Front Chem paper. A Mini Review on Capillary Isoelectric Focusing-Mass Spectrometry for Top-Down Proteomics. .
April 2021, Congratulations to Xiaojing for her recent Int J Mass Spectrom paper. This is a collaboration with Prof. Wenjun Du group at Central Michigan University. Investigating native capillary zone electrophoresis-mass spectrometry on a high-end quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer for the characterization of monoclonal antibodies.
March 2021, Congratulations to Zhichang for his recent Anal Methods paper. Recent technical progress in sample preparation and liquid-phase separation-mass spectrometry for proteomic analysis of mass-limited samples.
March 2021, Daoyang Chen passed his doctoral defense on Method development for capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (CE-MS)-based proteomics and application to uncovering proteome dynamics of zebrafish embryos during early embryogenesis. Congratulations to Dr. Chen!
March 2021, Congratulations to Daoyang for his recent Analytical Chemistry paper. Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Tandem Mass Spectrometry As an Alternative to Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Top-down Proteomics of Histones. A
February 2021, Rachele Lubeckyj passed her doctoral defense on Highly Sensitive Qualitative And Quantitative Top-Down Proteomics Using Capillary Zone Electrophoresis - Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Congratulations to Dr. Lubeckyj!
January 2021, Dr. Liangliang Sun has been recognized as one of the Rising Stars in Proteomics and Metabolomics by the ACS Journal of Proteome Research, one of the leading publications in proteomics.
2020
December 2020, Congratulations to Tian for her recent Analytical Chemistry paper. Automated Capillary Isoelectric Focusing-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Qualitative and Quantitative Top-Down Proteomics.
December 2020, Xiaojing Shen passed her doctoral defense on Leveraging capillary zone electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for multi-level proteomics. Congratulations to Dr. Shen!
August 2020, Congratulations to Zhichang for his recent Journal of Proteome Research paper. Toward a Universal Sample Preparation Method for Denaturing Top-Down Proteomics of Complex Proteomes.
Congratulations to Xiaojing Shen for being awarded the 2020 American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Graduate Student Travel Awards and the spring semester 2020 College of Natural Science Dissertation Continuation Fellowship! Well deserved!
February 2020, Congratulations to Daoyang for his recent Analytical Chemistry paper on the prediction of proteoform electrophoretic mobility. Predicting Electrophoretic Mobility of Proteoforms for Large-Scale Top-Down Proteomics.
2019
November 2020, Congratulations to Zhichang for his recent Journal of Proteome Research paper. Improved Nanoflow RPLC-CZE-MS/MS System with High Peak Capacity and Sensitivity for Nanogram Bottom-up Proteomics.
November 2019, Congratulations to Xiaojing for her review paper published on Trends Analyt Chem. Capillary zone electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for top-down proteomics.
August 2019, Congratulations to Rachele for her recent publication on J Am Soc Mass Spectrom. Large-Scale Qualitative and Quantitative Top-Down Proteomics Using Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry with Nanograms of Proteome Samples.
Congratulations to Elijah McCool for being awarded the 2019 American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Graduate Student Travel Awards!
February 2019, Congratulations to Daoyang for his recent publication on Analytical Chemistry. Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Large-Scale Phosphoproteomics with the Production of over 11,000 Phosphopeptides from the Colon Carcinoma HCT116 Cell Line.
2018
October 2018, Congratulations to Eli for his recent publication on J Vis Exp. Large-scale Top-down Proteomics Using Capillary Zone Electrophoresis Tandem Mass Spectrometry
September 2018, Congratulations to Xiaojing for her recent publication on Analytical Chemistry. Native Proteomics in Discovery Mode Using Size-Exclusion Chromatography-Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.
September 2018, Congratulations to Zhichang for his recent publication on Analytical Chemistry. Microscale Reversed-Phase Liquid Chromatography/Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Deep and Highly Sensitive Bottom-Up Proteomics: Identification of 7500 Proteins with Five Micrograms of an MCF7 Proteome Digest.
May 2018, Congratulations to Eli for his recent publication on Analytical Chemistry. Deep Top-Down Proteomics Using Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Tandem Mass Spectrometry: Identification of 5700 Proteoforms from the Escherichia coli Proteome.
November 2017, Congratulations to Rachele for her recent publication on Analytical Chemistry. Single-Shot Top-Down Proteomics with Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Identification of Nearly 600 Escherichia coli Proteoforms.