Research Interest

Single-Cell Proteomics

MS-based Single-Cell Proteomics will drastically advance our understanding of human health and disease, especially with the combination of single-cell transcriptomics and genomics (single-cell multi-omics). In the last five years, we have developed a novel Capillary Zone Electrophoresis - Tandem Mass Spectrometry (CZE-MS/MS) system with microliter-scale sample loading volume and hours of separation window and eliminated the major obstacle to using CZE-MS/MS for deep and highly sensitive bottom-up and top-down proteomics. Our lab has also developed a novel Nano3 technique for the preparation of a small number of human cells, enabling the identification of over 1000 proteins and dozens of transcription factors from only 10 HeLa cells. [Learn more]

Top-Down Proteomics

Delineation of proteins in a proteoform-specific manner is vital for revolutionizing our understanding of molecular mechanisms of diseases, developing more reliable approaches for disease diagnosis, and making more effective drugs. The Top-Down Proteomics based human proteoform project requires high-capacity separation and ultrasensitive MS-based detection of complex proteoform mixtures extracted from human cells and tissues. CZE-MS/MS is well known for highly efficient separation and highly sensitive detection of biomolecules (e.g., peptides and intact proteins), especially with recent improvements in CE-MS interface. We recently performed deep TDP of colorectal cancer cell lines using CE-MS and identified over 20,000 proteoforms. [Learn more]

Zebrafish Early Embryogenesis

We are currently applying the novel CZE-MS/MS-based systems for deep and quantitative bottom-up and top-down proteomics of zebrafish early-stage embryos across twelve developmental stages as well as quantitative bottom-up and top-down proteomics of single blastomeres in those embryos. [Learn more]