
Single-cell analysis is certainly a hot topic right now. The recently launched Human Cell Atlas project (www.humancellatlas.org) aims to uncover the transcriptome of over 10 billion cells throughout the body using RNA-Seq. It would be great to do the same at the protein level. There are a number of young researchers in the mass spectrometry proteomics field who are looking at strategies for single-cell analysis, with some very exciting results so far. It’s also possible that new technologies will come along that don’t rely on mass spectrometry at all – there have been some interesting experiments looking at applying nanopore technology used for DNA sequencing to intact protein analysis.