Salk Institute researchers published what they describe as the first microprotein atlas of the human frontal cortex in Alzheimer’s disease, using transcriptomics, mass spectrometry, and deep-learning-predicted spectra across postmortem samples. The resource is meant to surface microproteins—small proteins from small open reading frames (smORFs) that standard proteome catalogs tend to miss. The atlas integrates near 500 brains from individuals with and without Alzheimer’s, including samples from the Religious Orders Study/Memory and Aging Project cohort. The study uses custom computation and an AI-powered microprotein-finding tool called ShortStop developed in Saghatelian’s lab. For the field, the concrete deliverable is a searchable map of previously overlooked protein species tied to neurodegeneration biology, which can support mechanistic follow-up and biomarker discovery. The immediate significance is methodological: redefining what counts as part of the proteome in aging and dementia research with data layers beyond conventional annotation pipelines.