Deeper is not always better in plasma proteomics!

 

So...this came up with some incredible scientists I met at the University of North Carolina this week...

And here is a really cool review/perspective on the same issues. 

UNC's core is getting WAY higher plasma proteome coverage than I ever have with their amazing robots and magic nanoparticle things. But when they do quantitative comparisons and have rigorous restrictions on their quantitative accuracy, the numbers drop.

Is it as bad as an aptamer? Of course not. Nothing is as bad at measuring the abundance of a protein as an aptamer. Might as well flip a coin ;) 

But this is a smart look at different proteomics technologies for plasma enrichment that...wait....did they only give 5 stars to the one they developed...? Hmmm.... I mean...I'm not going to make fun of the stuff I developed either.... hmmm.... okay, but they make some incredible points about a whole lot of this stuff.

AND - BTW - when you're drawing blood where does the stuff go that you stabbed a needle through? Does the needle just perfectly part it's way through skin and blood vessels? It must, right? There's not just a big chunk of human skin floating around in there, right?