Meet Aleksandra Binek

Pacemaker cardiomyocytes are rare, elongated cells that form specialized clusters in the heart’s right atrium and control its normal rhythm. Until recently, they were largely inaccessible to proteomics. Aleksandra is now using spatial mass spectrometry imaging and single-cell proteomics to study these cells and their surrounding microenvironments in healthy and failing hearts. “It is incredibly exciting to explore cellular populations that have been largely inaccessible to proteomics before,” she says.

The first of two defining moments in Aleksandra’s career came around six years ago, when her mentor announced during a group meeting that they were going to study the proteome of a single cell. “Something that seems almost routine today sounded nearly impossible to us back then,” she says. The second was her move into molecular imaging, which required her to reconsider how analytical measurements connect with biology. “Each moment required me to rebuild myself scientifically and professionally, but also exposed me to very different ways of thinking about what is attainable in research. It taught me not to become too attached to one technique, field, subject, or definition of what my career should look like.”

Aleksandra’s way of seeing data owes something to an artistic upbringing. “I have always been fascinated by art, having grown up in an artistic family. It taught me to notice spatial relationships, unusual details, and broader patterns before translating everything into numbers and graphs – an approach that fits naturally with mass spectrometry imaging. Art has also taught me that how we communicate data matters almost as much as how we design, quality control, analyze, validate, and generate results.”