MEMBER INFORMATION
Aleks Popowich has been at The Met since 2020 where she studies the many uses of proteins and lipids in works of art using mass spectrometry. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute. She holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Alberta, where she studied the interactions of carcinogenic arsenic compounds with proteins using mass spectrometry and immunoassays.
ABM CONFERENCES
Team Presenter
Identifying trace amounts of brain-tissue-specific proteins in emulsion cured animal skins
Co-authored with Christine Giuntini. Read the Abstract.
Team Presenter
A Tripartite Approach to Biomolecule Analysis for the Identification of Chia Oil in Paintings and Lacquerware from New Spain (Mexico)
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.