I recently attended two Gordon Research Conferences on very different topics. The most memorable talks had one thing in common: They focused deeply on a single project, taught something new with rigor, made their assumptions and caveats clear, and invited critical thinking. 1/

America's scientific leadership was built on Vannevar Bush's vision that investing in fundamental research creates tomorrow's breakthroughs. Abandoning this vision risks weakening the engine that has driven U.S. prosperity, innovation, and health for generations. 1/

My Biemann Medal lecture is now available on YouTube. In it, I trace the exhilarating journey of developing single-cell proteomics, beginning on Christmas Day in 2010, when, as a PhD student, I became convinced that understanding biology would require measuring proteins. youtu.be/z0dIhG4C3qI?...

Biemann Medal Lecture: An exhilarating journey towards single-cell proteomics

YouTube video by Nikolai Slavov

youtu.be

This Nature Chemical Biology article highlights how alternate RNA decoding is expanding the proteome diversity. The highlighted results are reshaping my view of the human proteome and understanding of biology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thinking on the timescale of days & weeks, progress can feel frustratingly slow. Shifting to the timescale of years, the progress is spectacular: Often faster than expected. The arc of technology development has been awesome. The best is yet to come 🚀 annualreviews.org/content/jour...

We're glad to see our recent Nature article on alternate RNA decoding highlighted by GenomeWeb. The project started with a simple question that opened new horizons. 🔗 Links: 🔷 GenomeWeb piece: www.genomeweb.com/proteomics-p... 🔷 Nature article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some proteins covary with the cell division cycle similarly across cell types. Others covary in a cell type-dependent way. What is your interpretation ? doi.org/10.1186/s130...

A gene may template many dozens of products. Its products can have diverse, even opposing functions. Ascribing the functions of the products to the gene is a simplistic approximation that has outlived its usefulness.

A deeper dive into the article we published last week in @nature.com. I will start with the framing and methodology as they are key to understanding the surprising results: Most proteomics experiments begin with an assumption. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

As usually, the Single-Cell Proteomics Conference aims to maximize accessibility. Thus, #SCP2026 will enable virtual attendance via Zoom. It's free but requires registration at single-cell.net Only presentations by speakers who consent to Zoom broadcast will be included in the virtual program.

This discovery has been a long and exhilarating journey! It started in 2019 and proceeded through many challenges and thrilling highs. A journey that has opened new perspectives that we long to explore !

Nature@nature.com · last mo.

Nature research paper: Alternate RNA decoding results in stable and abundant proteins in mammals go.nature.com/4vtxVUh

We have studied proteins and proteomes for decades. Yet, our studies and methods have been rather limited to hypothesis testing. As a result, the proteome remains a frontier that awaits to be investigated with discovery-driven methods. nikolai.slavovlab.net/Proteome-sec...

The program for #SCP2026 is online. The talks span diverse technologies and biological questions. Join the discussions, flash talks, and hands-on workshop. 🗓️ July 14-16, 2026 | Boston, USA 🔗 Check out the full program: single-cell.net/proteomics/s...

The annual meeting of the American Society For Mass Spectrometry (@asms.org) has been very special for me as the Biemann Medal recognized our contributions to developing single-cell proteomic technologies and using them to open new perspectives.

The functional and molecular variation within a single cell-type is considerable, and proteomes tell that story. This covariation is coupled to functional differences: cells with distinct proteomic states show different endocytic activity, as measured by dextran uptake. nature.com/articles/s41...

The final version of our @annualreviews.bsky.social article is now published OA: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Single-Cell Proteomic Technologies: Tools in the Quest for Principles

Over the last decade, proteomics analysis of single cells by mass spectrometry transitioned from an uncertain possibility to a set of robust and rapidly advancing technologies supporting the accurate ...

annualreviews.org

These numbers are key to understanding RNA and protein analysis. The different counting statistics fundamentally shape technological challenges and opportunities. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations to Nikolai Slavov, recipient of the 2026 ASMS Biemann Medal! This award recognizes significant early-career achievement and highlights emerging leaders shaping the future of #massspectrometry. #TeamMassSpec

β-catenin is often synthesized to be immediately degraded... and defects in its degradation predispose to cancer. Why are key signaling mechanisms regulated by protein degradation ?

I am deeply honored to have been selected to receive the Biemann Medal by the American Society For Mass Spectrometry (@asms.org). While this award is presented to an individual, it reflects the collective contributions of exceptional teams at @slavovlab.bsky.social and @parallelsq.bsky.social.

An accessible highlight of our recent article: How Single-Cell Proteomics Could Unlock the Rules That Govern Cells azolifesciences.com/news/2026041... Article: Single-Cell Proteomic Technologies: Tools in the Quest for Principles. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

How Single-Cell Proteomics Could Unlock the Rules That Govern Cells

This review shows how single-cell proteomics by mass spectrometry has advanced from an uncertain idea to a rapidly improving toolkit that can now quantify thousands of protein groups from individual c...

azolifesciences.com

Judging from the abstracts submitted to the single-cell proteomics conference, SCP2026 is shaping to be an exceptional meeting. A convergence of new technologies, deep questions, and inventive experimental designs is poised to unlock answers to long standing puzzles. Abstract deadline: May 1st

Slavov Laboratory@slavovlab.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Single-cell proteomics by mass spectrometry: Technological overview and recent progress From uncertain possibility to robust and rapidly advancing technologies: 1/2 youtu.be/tibkXV6NblI?...

Single-cell proteomics by mass spectrometry: Technological overview and recent progress From uncertain possibility to robust and rapidly advancing technologies: 1/2 youtu.be/tibkXV6NblI?...

Single-cell proteomics by mass spectrometry: Technological overview and recent progress

YouTube video by Nikolai Slavov

youtu.be

A corner stone of cell models: mRNA abundance scales with cell size & growth rate. Changes in growth rate shift thousands of mRNA levels coordinately. Thus, the transcriptional responses to perturbations often reflect the associated growth rate changes. www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....

A powerful example of protein abundance regulation. The degradation rate of p53 determines its abundance. p53 is special, but regulation by protein degradation is not a special case. It's common: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

This July 14 - 15, the 9th Single-Cell Proteomics Conference (single-cell.net) brings together a community that is redefining what’s possible: Robust methods enable scalable proteoform measurements from single cells without sacrificing depth or quantitative accuracy. 1/3

Six years on from this perspective: science.org/doi/10.1126/... The technology has rapidly advanced and spread beyond a few pioneering labs. I am excited for the next phase, when the technology will increasingly enable mechanistic investigations & discoveries. 🚀

Here is a robust biochemical & functional difference between young and old mammalian cells: - The fraction of new amino acids incorporated into proteins. The difference is consistent, quantitative, cell-type specific, and deeply intriguing. What aging mechanisms cause it ? 1/

At the same time, some proteins are very long-lived. Some persist as long as the organism itself. Protein lifetimes range from minutes to decades: that's a dynamic range of ~6,000,000-fold. Lifetimes vary across cell types & states, and these dynamics are essential to life! 2/