Nikolai Slavov

Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, College of Engineering

Proteins are the workhorses of cells, serving as structural building blocks, binding to invading bacteria or viruses, catalyzing chemical reactions, carrying signals, and more. Proteins help illuminate a cell’s function, yet traditional methods for studying these large molecules are costly and complex. Professor Slavov is improving protein-measuring technologies to learn more about how particular types of cells work, and how their proteins contribute to disease. 

Using mass spectrometry, Slavov and his team have developed technology to quantify more than 2,000 proteins in various cell types—a 20-fold improvement over prior methods—and estimate their abundance. This cheaper, faster technique makes it possible to analyze the full complement of proteins, or proteome, of a single cell with greater accuracy. 

Slavov’s group is pioneering algorithms that, when applied to single-cell protein measurements, aim to identify biological mechanisms underpinning diseases like diabetes. Their work could also assist efforts to enhance and deploy immune cells to target cancer cells. Through the Human Atlas Project, Slavov is working with 200 labs worldwide to identify all the different cells in the body. He received his PhD from Princeton University.