Maria Pavlou: Proteomics Core Facility
Maria Pavlou in the proteomics core facility © 2021 EPFL / Aurélien Tock
Maria Pavlou joined EPFL in March this year as the Head of the Proteomics Facility. We spoke to her about her job, challenges and ambitions.
What do you like to do in your spare time? Do you have any hobbies?
The time I am not working is fully devoted to my family, so I try to combine my hobbies with activities that all do together. For example, I was always into painting and crafting, while my four-year-old son is into storytelling. So he comes up with a story, and then we create together a painting or a craft related to it. I’m also a big fan of Zumba fitness, and used to attend classes. So now we play our favorite music tracks and come up with our own choreography, which ends up being quite fun. I spend my very limited me-time reading a good crime mystery novel.
What services does your platform provide?
The Proteomics Core Facility (PCF) provides top-notch mass spectrometry-based proteomic technologies to the EPFL life sciences community and collaborators. Mass-spectrometry-based proteomics is a highly successful approach for identifying and characterizing the whole proteome and proteins of interest. We support proteomics-related projects, from experimental design, data acquisition, bioinformatics analysis, and data interpretation. We can therefore address a range of biological questions, including identifying, localizing, and quantifying proteins and post-translational-modifications in single or multiple samples, investigating protein complexes and protein-protein interactions, and elucidating protein-ligand or protein-drug interactions. Of course, we’re not limited to these.
What does your job involve?
I am in charge of the overall organization and management of the PCF, from staff supervision and training to strategy development. With my team, we scout for advancements in proteomics and work to implement them to meet our users’ needs. I also participate in training students and researchers. But the larger part of my job involves interacting with our users and the broader scientific community.
What are some challenges that you face in your role?
The major challenge I face is getting all the parties in a project on the same page, as early as possible. A project usually begins when a user has a scientific question that they believe could be addressed using mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Depending on the group, the background knowledge and understanding of proteomics technologies varies, so it’s important to properly evaluate the scientific question at hand, in order to ensure a clear understanding of the user’s need. However, there are projects, where certain restrictions from the user’s side, like time and budget, constrain the overall project. In these cases, it is important to identify and propose a solution that will be technically sound, while taking into consideration all the restrictions. So, communication becomes even more significant.
What are your plans for the future of the platform?
My vision is to establish the PCF as a core competitive advantage of EPFL in its path to European leadership in proteomics and biological research in general. To do this, I would like to launch an open dialogue between the platform and the scientific community through which the PCF identifies the needs of the users and implements relevant workflows that the users feel confident they can implement in their research projects. At the same time, we also aim to advance the field of proteomics, by publishing our own internal developments.
Thanks Maria for your time!