Manon Formaggia

My research focuses on lactation physiology and the molecular determinants of human milk composition. As part of my MPhil in Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge, I am investigating the detection of low-abundance imprinted gene products in human milk and how these signals contribute to infant growth and developmental programming.

My project aims to optimise depletion strategies that selectively remove high-abundance milk proteins to enhance sensitivity in mass spectrometry–based proteomic analysis. This work integrates biochemical optimisation, immunodepletion workflow development and proteomic validation to establish a scalable pipeline. 

More broadly, I am interested in the molecular regulation of lactation, the role of imprinted genes in shaping early-life nutritional environments and how variation in milk composition influences infant metabolic and immune trajectories.