MEMBER INFORMATION
Julie Arslanoglu is a Research Scientist at the Met. She investigates paints, coatings, adhesives, and the organic materials found in artworks across all ages using spectroscopy (FTIR), mass-spectrometric (GC/MS, Py-GC/MS. MALDI, LCMS) and immunological techniques (ELISA), with emphasis on natural and synthetic polymer identification and degradation. Her research interests include interactions between pigments and binders, especially proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, and their mixtures.
ABM CONFERENCES
Poster Presenter
Why Antibodies for Art Analysis?
Materials from animal and plant sources (biological materials) have been used by artists to create all forms of artworks throughout time. The challenge to cultural heritage scientists is to provide meaningful and accurate information to curators, art historians, and conservators about the fats, lipids, gums, and proteins that are chemically changed by pigments and binder interactions. Antibodies offer one avenue for the investigation of proteins and polysaccharides. This presentation will describe the pros, cons, and future of this approach.
Poster Presenter
Minimally invasive proteomics analysis: Application to museum objects made of ivory and bone
Co-authored with Caroline Tokarski. Read the Abstract.
ABM MEMBER EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS + PROJECTS
Francesca Galluzzi, Stéphane Chaignepain, Julie Arslanoglu, Caroline Tokarski
Hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry to elucidate reticulations, interactions and conformational changes of proteins in tempera paintings
Little is known about structural alterations of proteins within the polymeric films of paints. For the first time, hydrogen‑deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) was implemented to explore the conformational alterations of proteins resulting from their interaction with inorganic pigments within the early stages of the paint film formation. Intact protein analysis and bottom-up electrospray-ionisation mass spectrometry strategies combined with progressively increasing deuterium incubation times were used to compare the protein structures of the model protein hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) extracted from newly dried non-pigmented films and newly dried films made from a freshly made mixture of HEWL with lead white pigment (2PbCO3 Pb(OH)2). The action of other pigments was also investigated, expanding the HDX study with a global approach to paint models of HEWL mixed with zinc white (ZnO), cinnabar (HgS) and red lead (Pb3O4) pigments. The results show structural modifications of HEWL induced by the interaction with the pigment metal ions during the paint formulation after drying and prior to ageing. Both the charge distribution of HEWL proteoforms, its oxidation rate and its deuterium absorption rate, were influenced by the pigment type, providing the first insights into the correlation of pigment type/metal cation to specific chemistries related to protein stability.
Julie Arslanoglu
Cutting Through the Fat: Animal Species and Food Processing Techniques of Residues Found in Nineteenth-Century Edgefield Pottery
As part of the exhibition, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, The Met’s Department of Scientific Research (DSR) investigated organic food residues found inside large nineteenth-century alkaline-glazed stoneware vessels from the Old Edgefield District, South Carolina. “Examining Storage Jars from the American South” describes the driving questions about the jars’ use and the users’ lifestyle. Investigations reported in “The Inside (and Outside) Scoop: Scientific Analysis of Food Residues Inside the Jars from Old Edgefield, South Carolina” established that the heterogeneous residues are mostly oily materials with solid materials of various unknown origins. We hoped to gain more information about the jars’ contents from these residues, but to do so we need the sophisticated tools and expertise of our collaborators through ARCHE.