Dr Alberto Passi is a member of the editorial board of Glycobiology Insights. In this interview Dr Passi discusses his research, recently published articles and his views on open access publishing.

The Editor in Chief of Glycobiology Insights recently issued a call for papers.

What is the primary focus of your research?

I am interested in glycosaminoglycan metabolism and in particular I am working now on the UDP sugars synthesis in different human cell lines. We demonstrated that the UDP sugars availability regulates the GAG synthesis and the covalent modification of the enzymes involved in these processes are the critical key point for a fast response during metabolic changes in the cells. At the moment we are focused on hyaluronan metabolism as model in this context, in general the production of GAG is finely regulated and the alteration of GAG content is reported in several pathologies.

What are the most exciting developments arising from current research in your area?

I think that there are at least two main aspects which improved dramatically our knowledge, one is the use of transfection in order to modifying the enzymes expression and activity, the second is the fast growing field of mass spectrometry applied to glycobiogy which improved its sensitivity and gives to scientists new information of extraordinary importance starting from a very low amount of material.

The fine structural definition and the possibility to manipulate the glycostructure is in my opinion the most important development in the last years in our field.

Who are your main collaborators? Please describe your work with them.

My main collaborators are in Biomedical Engineering Department of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, in Harvard, in Europe we collaborate with scientists from Ludwig Cancer Institute in Uppsala (Sweden), in Kuopio (Finland) and Muenster (Germany). Vince Hascall in Cleveland is my mentor in this field and we are part of a network of people working together exchanging ideas, projects, reagents and collaborators; in fact people of my lab travels several times a year around the world in order to use specific techniques and equipment. For instance we collaborate with Markku and Raja Tammi in Kuopio in order to learn how to use confocal microscopy in vivo, with Evi Heldin in Uppsala to learn how to purify protein from cell membranes, in Muenster in Martin Goette lab to approach the biochemistry of Golgi apparatus, and in Boston to learn some bioinformatics in Marco Ramoni's lab.

How did you come to be working in your research area?

As often for chance. When I was in Medical School in hematology unit I started a period of training in biochemistry before graduation. There I found interesting some aspects of mucopolysaccharidoses, diseases very rare and in Italy few labs were able to make a diagnosis. So started my story from clinic to research in matrix biology area. The specific interest in GAG metabolism and hyaluronan in particular started in Hascall's lab in Cleveland during a two years of sabbatical from my university.

What do you think about the development of open access publishing?

I think that the open access publishing is extremely interesting, in particular considering the increase of costs for scientific publications and even for reviewing processes. As scientist I consider the diffusion of the knowledge a primary requirement for scientific progress. The only critical point is the rigorous review process in order to guarantee the scientific level of the publications. This aspect has to be the principal point of the open access journal. I am in the board of a couple of open access journals and I have found several excellent contributions even from labs operating in countries with poor economy. I think that an open access journal may represent a way to publish worlwide good results with low costs and this is critical for scientists working in poor countries.

What articles and/or books have you published recently?

Recently I published:

• Vigetti D, et al. The effects of 4-methylumbelliferone on hyaluronan synthesis, MMP2 activity, proliferation, and motility of human aortic smooth muscle cells. Glycobiology. 2009 May;19(5):537-46

• Vigetti D, et al. Vascular pathology and the role of hyaluronan. Scientific World Journal. 2008 Nov 2;8:1116-8

• Vigetti D et al. Hyaluronan-CD44-ERK1/2 regulate human aortic smooth muscle cell motility during aging. J Biol Chem. 2008 Feb 15;283(7):4448-58.16.

• Viola M, et al. New electrophoretic and chromatographic techniques for analysis of heparin and heparan sulfate. Electrophoresis. 2008 Aug;29(15):3168-74.

• Vigetti D et al. Chondroitin sulfates act as extracellular gating modifiers on voltage-dependent ion channels. Cell Physiol Biochem. 2008;22(1-4):137-46.

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