Single-cell proteomics illuminated new mechanisms of mammalian development. We found that spatially polarized protein distributions and intracellular protein gradients emerge during the earliest stages of mammalian embryogenesis and bias subsequent cell fate decisions. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

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

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

Some of the coolest reactions sustaining our lives are catalyzed by this molecule. Its central cobalt ion can shuttle between +1, +2, and +3 oxidation states, enabling the versatile chemistry of vitamin B12. Research on B12 has earned multiple Nobel Prizes, including to Dorothy Hodgkin in 1964.

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 ?

“Longevity genes” represent an oversimplified notion. This article exposes the dynamic, time-dependent nature of genetic effects on mortality. Many variants are not simply “good” or “bad” for lifespan. Rather, they act early, mid, or late in life, and some even reverse their effects with age.

It is our pleasure to announce that @slavov-n.bsky.social (Northeastern University, Boston) will be giving a talk at CNIC this coming Monday, May 11th, at 12:00 pm in the CNIC Auditorium. We look forward to an engaging presentation on the field of single-cell proteomics. #single-cell #proteomics

Next Monday (May 11), I will be in Madrid to share our research. I will present results from @parallelsq.bsky.social and @slavovlab.bsky.social, including our latest proteomic technologies and the biological questions they are answering.

Kinase inhibitors are the dominant class of targeted oncology drugs. The development of kinase inhibitors has been productive over the past 20 years. How to make it more productive ? > Invest in measuring and understanding protein signaling networks.

Morning thoughts inspired by the famous essay by Yuri Lazebnik: Can A Biologist Fix a Radio ? open.substack.com/pub/nikolais...

A growing body of research suggests that proteostasis failure is a key contributor to T cell exhaustion, shifting the focus to the cell’s capacity to maintain protein quality. This new study strengthens that view by linking proteostasis collapse to loss of T cell function and showing ... 1/2

This editorial is provocative, thoughtful and constructive. The central thesis is convincing, even self-evident: Going forward, the medical AI field must develop a consistent framework to connect ...

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.

After years of adding content in response to peer review, we’re now cutting it back out of the accepted research article. The preprint still holds the full story: Structured clearly, logically, and accessibly.

In science, being the "first to set the right direction" is often more influential than being the "first to build the final product."

In the 1990s, NSF invested ~$3M in exploring better information retrieval. The research helped lead to Google and Alphabet (current market cap ~ $4T). This million-fold return came from funding curiosity-driven, fundamental research. The biggest breakthroughs often start as questions ... 1/

Bacteria are full of diverse molecular tricks. This Science article reports an interesting one that is being misrepresented by news coverage, including the coverage in Science. open.substack.com/pub/nikolais...

The S&P 500 surged yesterday. But economic growth this year has been largely stagnant, and unemployment rates are rising, especially among young people. A single market rally doesn’t change the broader reality. Let’s place it in the broader context.

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

We need more slow thinking. More reflection. More depth. Fewer hot takes. More long-form conversations that challenge, refine, and expand how we see the world. Because the best ideas don’t arrive instantly, they’re built, tested, and sharpened over time.

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?...

Success grows from clarity of purpose, relentless persistence, and the kind of deep focus that shuts out the noise. Know what you’re building. Show up for it every day. Stay locked in when it gets hard. Clear intention. Persistence. Intense focus. It’s a mindset. Keep going.

Real life can be stranger than fiction. What is happening in the USA now is stranger than the darkest movie I have seen.

Imagine a system in which well performing employees are moved to new positions until they get to a position where they perform poorly. According to the Peter Principle, that is how industry works. While the Peter Principle is widely popularized and makes intuitive ...

Every day, 200 -- 300 billion red blood cells are born and die in your body. That's 2 - 3 times more cells than the number of neurons on your brain. Each red blood cell has ~ 200 million hemoglobin molecules. => Each day, your body makes and breaks down ~ 4 x 10¹⁹ hemoglobin molecules !

Security for all nations is paramount. Terror must not be tolerated. These widely held principles do not justify military aggression aiming to reduce a nation to the “stone age.” What if such aggression only begets more violence? What if it stabilizes autocratic regimes?

The world has made tremendous progress. I believe we will overcome the major crises of our time and continue advancing humanity. Be an agent for good.

A remarkable result supported by remarkably clean data. A recent study published in Cell by Cell Press tackles a difficult and important question: Can a routine vaccine influence dementia risk? 1/

“Virtual cell models” built from perturbation data capture large, low-dimensional sources of variation shared across conditions. This raises a question: - How much of this common variance is explained by growth rate or related global physiological changes ? Has anyone rigorously quantified this?

The remarkable growth of AI capital expenditures. AI investment has reached ~2% of global GDP, exceeding peak buildouts of electrification and the internet. History says that’s what transformative technologies look like… and what bubbles look like. What do you think ?

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...

AI is powerful, but hype gives it pseudoscience vibes. When claims are unfalsifiable, detached from reality, or driven by tools looking for problems, we risk undermining real progress. Overselling AI does not accelerate science: It erode trust. stevensalzberg.substack.com/p/ai-is-star...

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

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....

Sir Alex Younger (Former head of MI6) analyzes the military and strategic situation in Iran. His conclusion is a somber one: > The military actions likely have extended the reach and life of the Iranian regime. youtu.be/Lggjw3OuFrw?...

The outcome of this Kentucky primary election can be a defining moment for US politics. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/u...

Neurons are often described as digital because they spike. Yet, neurons don’t just fire: they compute continuously. Experiments show: - subthreshold voltages modulate synaptic release - dendrites generate graded spikes Analog vs. digital hardware information processing is a key distinction...

A cool mechanism for regulating microRNAs by an E3 ubiquitin ligase! It will be interesting to explore the extent to which the mechanistic details of the ZSWIM8–CUL3 E3 ligase generalize to other ligases.

As expected, the Federal Reserve held its key interest rate unchanged (11-to-1 vote). The Fed policymakers singled out "developments in the Middle East" as a source of uncertainty. These "developments" have the potential to start increasing the interest rate 📉

It’s a psychological fallacy that humans far overemphasize the risk of acting while ignoring the risk of inaction. As a form of inaction, the risks of silence may be less visible. www.statnews.com/2026/03/12/n...

Src is inverted onto the cell surface in cancer cells. Interesting observation with potentially significant implications: Intracellular N-myristoylated proteins, such as Src, may be topologically inverted onto the cell surface in cancer and targeted.

Our world is beset by deep crises. What are well-reasoned, constructive visions for overcoming them ? Please share comments or references to forward-looking perspectives focused on overcoming our political and societal problems.

Next week, @andrewleduc.bsky.social will present at the CSHL Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression meeting. His talk will focus on in vivo protein regulation in single cells, including results from this preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Americans are losing jobs, and the unemployment rate is rising.

Many human proteins are long-lived. This includes proteins in oocytes, whose maintenance is essential for reproductive success. Our results reveal lower levels of proteasomes & proteostasis regulators in advanced maternal age oocytes. This suggests that advanced age ...

We have known that proteins are made of amino-acids for ~ 120 years. In 1902, Fischer and Hofmeister proposed that the -NH2 of one amino acid binds the -C00H of another, resulting in a linear structure that Fischer termed "peptide".

David Botstein was a towering figure in genetics, genomics and biology. He was a mentor of extraordinary impact, which I experienced personally as a PhD student in his group at Princeton University. He will be remembered for his incisive and formidable intellect, ...

When I think on the timescale of days and weeks, progress can be frustratingly slow. Shifting to the timescale of years, the progress is spectacular: Often faster than expected. Living through the arc of technology development has been awesome. The best is yet to come 🚀

The human brain consumes ~20–25 W. A substantial fraction of this energy is used for protein maintenance, synthesis and degradation. Thus, the energy used directly for information processing 'compute' is less than ~20–25 W