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Plasma Proteomes Can Be Reidentifiable and Potentially Contain Personally Sensitive and Incidental Findings

Overview of attention for article published in Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, January 2021
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (94th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
1 news outlet
blogs
1 blog
twitter
41 X users

Citations

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19 Dimensions

Readers on

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61 Mendeley
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Title
Plasma Proteomes Can Be Reidentifiable and Potentially Contain Personally Sensitive and Incidental Findings
Published in
Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, January 2021
DOI 10.1074/mcp.ra120.002359
Pubmed ID
Authors

Philipp E. Geyer, Sebastian Porsdam Mann, Peter V. Treit, Matthias Mann

Abstract

The goal of clinical proteomics is to identify, quantify, and characterize proteins in body fluids or tissue to assist diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of patients. In this way, it is similar to more mature omics technologies, such as genomics, that are increasingly applied in biomedicine. We argue that, similar to those fields, proteomics also faces ethical issues related to the kinds of information that is inherently obtained through sample measurement, although their acquisition was not the primary purpose. Specifically, we demonstrate the potential to identify individuals both by their characteristic, individual-specific protein levels and by variant peptides reporting on coding single nucleotide polymorphisms. Furthermore, it is in the nature of blood plasma proteomics profiling that it broadly reports on the health status of an individual - beyond the disease under investigation. Finally, we show that private and potentially sensitive information, such as ethnicity and pregnancy status, can increasingly be derived from proteomics data. Although this is potentially valuable not only to the individual, but also for biomedical research, it raises ethical questions similar to the incidental findings obtained through other omics technologies. We here introduce the necessity of - and argue for the desirability for - ethical and human rights-related issues to be discussed within the proteomics community. Those thoughts are more fully developed in our accompanying manuscript. Appreciation and discussion of ethical aspects of proteomic research will allow for deeper, better-informed, more diverse, and, most importantly, wiser guidelines for clinical proteomics.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 41 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 61 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 61 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 10 16%
Researcher 10 16%
Student > Master 8 13%
Student > Bachelor 4 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 7%
Other 8 13%
Unknown 17 28%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 13 21%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 7 11%
Computer Science 5 8%
Immunology and Microbiology 3 5%
Chemistry 3 5%
Other 10 16%
Unknown 20 33%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 38. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 September 2021.
All research outputs
#1,068,549
of 25,443,857 outputs
Outputs from Molecular and Cellular Proteomics
#76
of 3,224 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#29,363
of 520,069 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Molecular and Cellular Proteomics
#4
of 60 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,443,857 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,224 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 520,069 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 60 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.