I honestly don't know why I still have GoogleNews on my phone, it's descended to AI written gibberish that has worse grammar and coherence than this awful blog you're visiting. However, these over the top Science business topics do provide me with thinking points.
If you aren't familiar with Quantum-SI, it is a little benchtop box that can sequence a couple of proteins really well by degrading them.
If you immediately thought...wait...like the Edman Degradation thing we used to use before mass spectrometry replaced it in about 94% of labs?
No! It isn't just an expensive Edman sequencer, it is on the front page of the website here.
No complex and expensive cyclical chemistry here! Just a more expensive instrument and more expensive proprietary reagents. 100% different.
Wait, why did mass spectrometry replace Edman anyway? Was it because in 2005 it wasn't that tough to do 500 proteins/hour but with lower relative sequence coverage? Yes. That was why.
What makes Quantum-Si the solution that is powering the proteomics revolution? Same link as above.
Got it. Are the $ decimals? if so and mass specs are $$$$$ and the best mass specs on the planet right now have GSA pricing around $1.0M then, the Quantum-SI is $10? I don't think that is true, I think I was told $100k, ish for a Platinum. Maybe it's base 4? Whatever.
What you can't argue with is that Analysis in mass spectrometry is complex. Absolutely, the worst idea is to invest in people who can do those analyses. The best idea is to get something simple.
Look, I have exactly zero issue with people getting benchtop sequencers in their labs that help them sequenced their digested proteins slowly. And I'm jealous that they could make the software simple enough that people are gobbling these things up. The more people who walk away from higher and higher throughput nucleotide sequencing as the way to solve all of their problems when it is probably only the way to solve a lot of them, the better.
As a proteomics blog devoted to creating mass spectrometry memes and pointing out that you should be able to get a fucking degree in proteomics in 2024, I'm clearly biased against any big news article about the next big revolution in proteomics. When it's a technology that I or a whole bunch of my friends would absolutely destroy in a 1-on-1 head to head with an old Orbitrap that's a whole 'nother level. But...then....it makes me think of who I'd put money on and I remember that a not insignificant percentage of them are ...dead....or worse, in leadership roles where they don't run their own instruments - then this thing ...clearly has a valuable niche that it can and probably might effectively contribute.
Still a good idea to make fun of it, though.
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