MEMBER INFORMATION
Vaclav completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at University of Warwick as part of integrated masters course, MChem. He performed his master thesis research on ultra-high mass resolution mass spectrometry group. The master thesis was concentrated around optimising fragmentation techniques for carbonic anhydrase using a 12T FT-ICR Mass Spectrometer. Vaclav joined the S2MB (Mass Spectrometry of Biological Macromolecules) team of the UMR CNRS 5248 Institute of Chemistry & Biology of Membranes & Nano-objects to complete his PhD studies under supervision of prof. Caroline Tokarski. Under the grant from CNRS Vaclav will work as the part of the ARCHE lab to study the applications of Top-down mass spectrometry in study of ancient proteins from cultural heritage samples.
ABM CONFERENCES
Poster Presenter
Unleashing top-down mass spectrometry in study of proteinaceous materials in museum objects: Method development using paint models
ABM MEMBER EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS + PROJECTS
Catherine Gilbert, Vaclav Krupicka, Francesca Galluzi, Aleksandra Popowich, Stéphane Claverol, Julie Arslanoglu, Caroline Tokarski
Species identification of ivory and bone museum objects using minimally invasive proteomics
Ivory is a highly prized material in many cultures since it can be carved into intricate designs and have a highly polished surface. Due to its popularity, the animals from which ivory can be sourced are under threat of extinction. Identification of ivory species is not only important for CITES compliance, it can also provide information about the context in which a work was created. Here, we have developed a minimally invasive workflow to remove minimal amounts of material from precious objects and, using high-resolution mass spectrometry–based proteomics, identified the taxonomy of ivory and bone objects from The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection dating from as early as 4000 B.C. We built a proteomic database of underrepresented species based on exemplars from the American Museum of Natural History, and proposed alternative data analysis workflows for samples containing inconsistently preserved organic material. This application demonstrates extensive ivory species identification using proteomics to unlock sequence uncertainties, e.g., Leu/Ile discrimination.