From the Human Genome to the Human Proteome

A herculean task: Determining the human proteome sets the ultimate challenge in cell biology as it is thought to consist of more than 1 000 000 proteoforms, in contrast to “only” 20 000 protein-coding genes. Two teams of researchers have now proved the translation of 18 000 proteins (and more than 27 000 isoforms) by mass spectrometry. They obtained important information on the extent of protein translation and alternative splicing.