How many pieces in the CLL jigsaw?

According to Suliman’s thesis:

Average amount of protein in a 10^7 CLL cells = 382 microg

Round this up to 400 microg of protein

Average protein size = 40 kDa

1 kDa = 1.66 x 10^-21 g

40 kDa protein = 6.6 x 10^-20 g

Therefore, 1 g of an average protein = 6.6 x 10^20 molecules

400 microg reduces this to about 2.6 x 10^16 molecules in 10^7 CLL cells.

Therefore, one CLL cell has about 2.6 x10^9 protein molecules.

So each CLL cell has about 2.5 billion protein molecules.

First answer: 2.5 billion pieces in the CLL protein jigsaw.

Also DNA, RNA, lipids, carbohydrates, other macromolecules, ions and water but hey….

If we propose that approx 5,000 different proteins are expressed in a CLL cell:

Then there is an average of 5 x 10^5 molecules of each protein.

However, there is a range of sizes and a range of expression levels.

Add to this:

How many transcripts detected by Affymetrix chip?

How many proteins confirmed by proteomics?

How many cell surface proteins?

How many nuclear proteins?

How many mitochondria?