Pandemic Proteomics

One of the major challenges we face in the fight against COVID-19 is a lack of knowledge surrounding host responses. Some are asymptomatic; others die – but what biological mechanisms underscore this chasmic disconnect?

Christoph Messner and colleagues are unraveling the mystery (1). Having spent the last few years developing an MS-based, high-throughput proteomics platform at the Francis Crick Institute, the team can quantify over 200 proteins per sample in less than 10 minutes. “It was obvious that our proteomics platform could be used as a powerful tool to study the plasma proteins of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2,” Messner says. “We set out to assess protein-level host responses with the hope of identifying markers for disease severity.”