Presented by Anu Jain, Research Fellow, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Characterization of cellular proteomes is key to understanding biological processes. With significant improvements in sensitivity and performance of mass spectrometers, it has become feasible to explore the cellular proteome when limited numbers of cells are available for analysis. However, this is still challenging, especially in terms of sample preparation strategies. Traditional multi-step sample processing strategies can result in sample loss, lower protein recovery and limited protein identification when starting with low cell numbers. In addition, longer processing times may limit the number of samples that can be analyzed. Our objective was to overcome some of these limitations by implementing a novel sample preparation strategy for proteomics analysis when low number of cells are available.