INFORM October 2024

6 • inform October 2024, Vol. 35 (9)

Phospholipid Division members research food and nutrition applications

The Phospholipid Division promotes professional interest, communication, and competence of experts in the phospho lipid and lecithin fields. This year’s division leaders include Sugasini Dhavamani, Chair; Andrea Stange, Vice Chair; Gulustan Ozturk, Secretary of Education and Events; and Prasuna Desam, Secretary of Membership Communications. To join the Phospholipid Division, contact Steph Adams, steph. adams@aocs.org . SPOTLIGHT ON MIKAEL FABRITIUS Mikael Fabritius is a postdoctoral researcher in the Food Sciences unit at the University of Turku, Finland. His main expertise is method development in liquid chromatographic and mass spectrometric applications. Throughout his academic career, his work has focused on deep structural characteriza tion of lipid molecules, particularly triglycerides and phospho lipids found in natural fats and oils. INFORM: What part of your research or work involves phospholipids? Fabritius: I am currently working on developing a tandem mass spectrometric analysis method for characterizing the positioning of individual fatty acids in phospholipid molecules. Previous work showed that the position of fatty acids in tri glycerides influences their absorption and nutritional proper ties, especially in infant nutrition. For phospholipids, we are still mostly in uncharted territory as there have not been suit able protocols for this type of analysis. Our method, initially developed for the phosphatidylcholine class, is now being expanded to other classes, such as phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine. INFORM: What advancements do you find most promis ing in your field of research? Fabritius: As an academic researcher doing mostly analytical method development, I am always very interested in the lat est developments in instrumentation, particularly mass spec trometry. New features such as alternative fragmentation mechanisms allow us to take the molecules, fragment them in a different way compared to traditional mass spectrome ters, and get additional structural information about the mol ecules. Machine learning applications have also helped us to

Mikael Fabritius

decipher extremely complex data, something that was not previously possible. INFORM: How does attending the AOCS Annual Meeting support your research and interests? Fabritius: Conferences are always very important for meeting peers and sharing ideas. The AOCS Annual Meeting especially is one of the largest gatherings in this field, which allows me to network with some of the best experts in this field globally. I have now attended the Annual Meeting twice, and both times the conference program has been extensive, featuring a nice balance of fundamental research and industrial applications. INFORM: What future research directions are you excited about concerning phospholipids? Fabritius: The characterization of phospholipids in natural fats and oils is currently done on mostly the molecular spe cies level. The identity of the attached fatty acid is known, but