Yates and colleagues are focused on advancing mass spectrometry as an important bioanalytical tool for life sciences research and drug development. In contrast to antibody-based methods that measure one protein at a time, mass spectrometry allows thousands of proteins to be examined together with unprecedented speed and sensitivity. One of their strategies, differential mass spectrometry, couples state-of-the-art, high-resolution Fourier-transform mass spectrometry with cloud-computing image processing tools to identify and quantify proteins that exhibit a statistically significant change in abundance as a function of time, treatment, or condition. This new quantitative proteomics technique creates many avenues for studying the nature and function of proteins in cells, tissue, or clinically accessible bio fluids. Importantly, mass spectrometry also provides a direct path for translating these discoveries into new assays or diagnostic tests that measure biologically relevant proteins with absolute molecular specificity.

This work is highly multidisciplinary, bringing together people with expertise in biochemistry, high-resolution mass spectrometry, and informatics; with collaborative publications related to Cancer, Schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and Metabolic Disorders. Working closely with the pharmaceutical industry, we have a special interest in proteomic methods that identify novel drug-target interactions and elucidate novel on/off-target effects of medicines. Driving experimental innovations towards commercial development is a key objective of the lab and we actively partner with companies to make new technologies accessible to the broader scientific community.