Fatima Ventura has long been interested in the elucidation of the pathogenesis of mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation (FAO) disorders, namely the interaction mechanisms between FAO, energy metabolism and the carnitine cycle. In the last years, she expanded her studies into the in vitro and in silico characterization of the wild-type and various disease-causing mutants of the medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, an enzyme of FAO. The ultimate goal is to define structural-functional markers for the screening for small molecules able to rescue the variant enzymes showing in vitro to be affected by misfolding.