Timothy Trinklein, a postdoctoral research associate based at the Beckman Institute working with Professor Jonathan Sweedler, recently received the National Institutes of Health’s Pathway to Independence award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

The award’s purpose is to facilitate a scientist’s transition to an independent faculty research position with up to five years of financial research support. The award funds are split up to two years of postdoctoral research while still under the guidance of a mentorship team, followed by up to three years of independent research support after he secures a faculty position. As an analytical chemist by training, Trinklein is hoping to secure a tenure-track faculty position where he can develop new analytical and computational tools to study biological systems.

Trinklein highlights the collaborative culture at the Beckman Institute as one of the reasons for his application’s success. He also notes that having immediate access to Beckman’s Microscopy Suite helped prove his proposal’s viability.

Trinklein’s growing focus on biological research reflects his broader interest in the natural world, which has shaped both his scientific interests and his life outside the lab. His hobbies include anything that can be done outdoors like hiking, backpacking and trail running. In college he started off studying biology, following his interests. Yet a chemistry professor encouraged him to consider analytical chemistry, a field where he could develop new instruments and computational tools to measure and interpret biological phenomena.

This move led Trinklein to pursue analytical chemistry for his doctoral studies, where he familiarized himself with separation science, mass spectrometry and data analysis.

“I thought that if I could develop a strong foundation in analytical chemistry, I could apply those analytical techniques to shed new light on challenging biological systems,” Trinklein said.

His Ph.D. work helped him transition into the Sweedler Lab, where he develops analytical methods for biomedical research. Trinklein is mentored by both Sweedler and Fan Lam, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the Beckman Institute, on developing new mass spectrometry methods and using data analysis tools to make them faster.

Trinklein’s work uses mass spectrometry imaging to identify and map unusual neuropeptides modifications in the brain. New medicines like GLP-1 drugs are based on naturally occurring neuropeptides. However, our knowledge on neuropeptide communication is incomplete. 

Neuropeptides can travel far in the brain and are modified over time which makes them more difficult to understand. Which is why it is important to measure neuropeptides in real time as they move and change. Trinklein proposed to build a new instrument to make measurements of neuropeptides possible.

The grant application required Trinklein to highlight his project leadership experience, and to gather preliminary data to defend his proposal. Sweedler and Lam allowed him the freedom to pursue his research interests through different exploratory projects that paved the way for his cohesive proposal.

Mass spectrometry identifies biomolecules by reading their unique mass after being ionized. However, real time measurements are impossible to collect with many mass spectrometry techniques because the sample must be placed in a vacuum.

A method developed by Julia Laskin at Purdue University called nanospray desorption electrospray ionization, or nano-DESI, operates at normal atmospheric pressure. This makes it possible to measure neuropeptides in real time as they are released from tissues or cells.

“Building a nano-DESI   instrument here is an idea I conceived after I received a small award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry,” he said. “It gave me enough money to go over to Purdue and work with Julia Laskin. I learned her nano-DESI technique and got some preliminary data. Just having a couple weeks to focus on a side project allowed me to work it into a core aim for this grant.”

Using these methods, the exact location of neuropeptides along a brain cell can be found. Trinklein explains that his goal is to discover neuropeptides, where they are found and how they are modified. And ultimately understand their role in communication in the nervous system. A better understanding of these processes could eventually help guide the development of peptide therapeutics.

“Biology is an incredibly diverse and interesting field. It's much more complicated than any other system you can imagine,” Trinklein said. “We know less about the inside of a mammalian cell than we do about the inside of a neutron star. It's still this completely uncharted chemical territory. Despite so much effort and so much time, there's still a lot that we don't know.”

Editor’s note: Trinklein received the NIH/NIGMS K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award.