  Many pressing medical challenges - such as diagnosing disease, enhancing
directed stem cell differentiation, and classifying cancers - have long been
hindered by limitations in our ability to quantify proteins in single cells.
Mass-spectrometry (MS) is poised to transcend these limitations by developing
powerful methods to routinely quantify thousands of proteins and proteoforms
across many thousands of single cells. We outline specific technological
developments and ideas that can increase the sensitivity and throughput of
single cell MS by orders of magnitude and usher in this new age. These advances
will transform medicine and ultimately contribute to understanding biological
systems on an entirely new level.
