Our research is interdisciplinary. We develop and utilize proteomics tools to study cell-surface N-glycoproteins that play important roles in stem-cell development. Through various model systems, we want to understand how extra-cellular microenvironment influences stem-cell function and behavior through these proteins and their N-glycosylation.
LC-MS based shortgun proteomics is a powerful technique that utilizes HPLC to deliver nanoliter per minute constant flow under hundreds to thousands fold of atmosphere pressure for extremely high resolution separation and for downstream accurate mass spectrometry analysis, in which millions of peptides from thousands of proteins can be measured in less than an hour. Doing so, the technique is able to detect and quantify the entire proteome of any biological samples and build global protein interaction networks for systematic study of human health and diseases.