# A Microfluidic/Nanofluidic System for Rapid Single Cell Proteomics

> **NIH NIH R41** · FLUIDISPEC LLC · 2022 · $400,000

## Abstract

Proteomics typically involves the analysis of the protein components of large populations of cells. Nearly
all the of a cell’s machinery are proteins, so many diseases and responses to stimuli and stressors are
manifested at the protein level. Proteomes are challenging to characterize fully for many reasons. Some
of the key attributes of a proteome that make its characterization so challenging are: the large number
of proteins expressed in a single cell, the wide dynamic range of protein relative abundance, and the
numerous modifications that can switch proteins between active an inactive states. To further increase
complexity, significant heterogeneity exists at the cellular level that is averaged out by bulk analyses. To
better understand biological and health implications of cellular heterogeneity, single cell proteomics has
emerged. However, improvements in the enabling analytical technologies are needed as single-cell
proteomics adds the additional challenge of extremely small sample size. This application focuses on the
development of a novel electrokinetic microfluidic/nanofluidic system for improved single-cell proteome
analyses that is a significant deviation from the current ultra-performance liquid chromatography
(UPLC)-mass spectrometry (MS) based approaches. The proposed electrokinetic microfluidic/nanofluidic
system is expected to offer improved performance from: reduced sample loss, increased sample
concentration eluted into the mass spectrometer, reduced peptide contamination, high efficiency
separations, and rapid analyses. The Aims of this application focus on: 1) fabrication and optimization of
the key functional modules, and 2) integration of these functional modules into a complete system and
measurement of the performance of the complete system. The primary metrics for system performance
will be the speed of the analysis and the number of protein groups identified. If successful, this
application will provide a novel system for single-cell proteomics that will improve the analysis speed
without sacrificing depth of proteome coverage.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10547040
- **Project number:** 1R41GM148104-01
- **Recipient organization:** FLUIDISPEC LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Aaron T Timperman
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $400,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10547040

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10547040, A Microfluidic/Nanofluidic System for Rapid Single Cell Proteomics (1R41GM148104-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10547040. Licensed CC0.

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