Understanding the role of mucins in human health:

Valentina’s research focuses on the study of mucins—proteins essential to human health—through the use of mass spectrometry to analyze their post-translational modifications, particularly glycosylation, which has been linked to various diseases, including cancer. Mucins undergo modifications through the enzymatic addition of different sugars, a process that significantly affects their structure and function, and is closely tied to cellular health changes. To better understand these processes, Valentina and her team use advanced mass spectrometry techniques that fragment the proteins into smaller segments, making it easier to identify both their amino acid sequences and the decorating sugars—a critical step toward understanding their role in health and disease progression. However, current data analysis algorithms have limitations, as they often fail to accommodate the inherent variability of mucins and their modifications. This has driven the team to work on improving these algorithms to optimize the interpretation of the data collected. In addition, Valentina’s lab is collaborating with multiple institutions to develop new analytical tools, integrating machine learning approaches to more effectively validate results and enhance the identification and characterization of mucins in the context of disease.