The Frontier Mass Spectrometry-based Proteomic Technology

Date: 2021/06/25 - 2021/06/25

Academic Seminar: The Frontier Mass Spectrometry-based Proteomic Technology

Speaker: Prof. Catherine C.L. WONG, Director of Center for Precision Medicine Multi-omics Research, Health Science Center, Peking University

Time: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. June 25th, 2021 (Beijing Time)

Location: CIMC Auditorium (Room 300), JI Long Bin Building

Abstract

Since the two ionization technologies (ESI and MALDI) won the Nobel Prize in 2002, mass spectrometry, a more than one-hundred-year-old technology in Physics, for measuring the ratio of mass to charge, began to be widely applied in the biological field in replacement of the traditional Edman degradation method for protein sequencing.  Professor John Yates developed a large-scale multidimensional protein identification technique using shotgun approach called MudPIT, as well as an automatic database searching algorithm named SEQUEST 35 years ago. After that, mass spectrometry-based proteomic technology has entered a new era of rapid development, leading to unprecedented leap in basic biological research. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics is the most important and main method for studying proteins. In addition to identifying and characterizing proteins, it also provides information about protein expression, post-translational modifications, interactions, and non-spatial structures. Thus, it may deeply and comprehensively reveal the true biological functions in the body, as well as continuously drive new biological discoveries. With the tremendous progress in mass spectrometry equipment and methodology, proteomics is going deep into the clinical research. It promotes the development of disease diagnosis and treatment targets, unveils the mechanism of disease occurrence and development, and also provides new directions and method paradigms for medicine and clinics.

Taking important clinical questions as the root, our research focuses on the development of cutting-edge mass spectrometry-based proteomics technologies (including single-cell proteomics, absolute quantitative proteomics, extracellular vesicleomics, etc.). Our main goal is to explore and reveal the unknowns in the field of life sciences, establish standardized procedures for the development and verification of clinical biomarkers, and ultimately obtain real output which can contribute to human health.

Biography

Professor Catherine C.L. Wong is the Director of Center for Precision Medicine Multi-omics Research (CPMMR), Associate Professor with Tenure at School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, Principal Investigator at Peking University-Tsinghua University Center for Life Sciences (CLS), and Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester.

Professor Wong has been dedicating to the development of cutting-edge mass spectrometry-based proteomics technologies and the applications in basic biological and biomedical research. She firstly identified beta-actin as the substrate of arginylation in vivo thus greatly facilitate the whole research filed of this post translational modification (Science, 2006). The method of CuteChip, a single-cell proteome technology developed in her lab, was recognized at the International Conference of Single-cell Proteome for three consecutive years (2019-2021) as the method for identifying the highest amount of proteins in one cell. The original research was highlighted in Analytical Chemistry (2018). Currently, she developed absolute quantitative proteomics method on mass spectrometry (TIMLAQ-MS), which leads to a discovery of multiple signaling roles of CD3ε, and the development of next-generation CAR-T cell therapy with improved antitumor activity (Cell, 2020). This research was awarded as “Top 10 Advances in Life Sciences of 2020 in China” project. More recently, she applied 4D-DIA high-throughput technology to reveal a “two-stage” mechanism of COVID-19 (Nat Commun, 2020). The article was recognized as “SARS-CoV-2 Top 50 Read Articles of 2020”. Moreover, to discover authentic disease biomarkers and to unveil disease mechanisms based on large clinical cohort were also her main pursuing. She used multi-omics technologies, combined with biotechnology, chemical biology, neural networks and other interdisciplinary technologies for functional verification, mechanism analysis, as well as clinical application of IVD. At present, multiple pipelines including tumors and mental diseases are in development and transformation.

Professor Wong has published over 80 articles in the journals such as Cell, Science, Nature Methods, Nature Communications and so on.