Cellular Dumpster Diving Yields Diagnostic Treasure

An investigator sifts through trash, uncovers clues, and assembles a case-cracking profile. Are we watching a crime drama? No, we’re following the progress of a scientific study, one that reaches into the cell’s trash and finds tell-tale patterns of protein turnover and degradation. In this case, the cells are immune cells, from patients suffering systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and the patterns are protein degradation signatures. These signatures, it happens, show what conventio