Is it possible (or meaningful) to count how many proteins (protein copy number?) of a certain type a given cell has on its surface?
For instance, say there is some membrane integral protein X
. Is it possible to take a population of cells, and arrive at a number (say 100
) that reflects the average number of X
per cell in the population?
I'm trying to look for publications that have done something along these lines, and I've had no luck so far. This made me wonder if this is even a meaningful idea at all, so I decided to see clarification here. (Apologies if this is a trivial question.)