Each year, Bioanalysis and Bioanalysis Zone run the Young Investigator Award to identify and reward promising early-career researchers in our community. This year has seen the largest number of nominees yet, with 18 young scientists in the running to win the 2013 Award!
We are pleased to announce that this year’s Award will again be held in association with Waters and the European Bioanalysis Forum, with the winner receiving US$1000, a year’s subscription to Bioanalysis and free open access for their next article published in the journal. They will also receive help with travel costs to ensure they can accept their award in person at the European Bioanalysis Forum Symposium in November, where they will have the chance to make a short presentation on their work.
We will be publishing full profiles of all 18 nominees on Bioanalysis Zone (www.bioanalysis-zone.com), and summary profiles will published across four issues of Bioanalysis.
Once all the profiles have been published, our Editorial board will help us to narrow the field to five finalists before we open our online vote and ask you to choose our winner.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest news and your chance to vote!
Neha Saxena
Supporting comments
It is a great pleasure to recommend Neha Saxena for the Bioanalysis Young Investigator award. Neha worked under my supervision as a PhD student and showed her extraordinary interest and knowledge as a bioanalytical chemist. She worked in my laboratory as a Research Fellow, for which she was awarded the prestigious All India CSIR-UGC NET fellowship by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. Her area of work was related to surveillance and safety assessment of commonly encountered mycotoxins, including patulin and ochratoxin. Later, she studied the mechanism of toxicity of patulin in dermal tissue and also worked in the new area of nanotoxicology. With her sincerity and scientific acumen she was able to publish her work in few outstanding journals. One of her findings was cited on a cover page of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. During her stay in my laboratory she learned and applied several sophisticated and advanced techniques used in food toxicology/cancer biology research such as high performance thin layer chromatography, HPLC, LC–MS, spectrophotometry, spectrofluorometry, immunohistochemistry, flow cytometery and ELISA. Neha is certainly a promising scientist who has shown full capacity for analytical thinking, ability to organize and formulate ideas, and genuine interest in basic research. I am sure that she will achieve great success in her future research and strongly recommend her candidature for Bioanalysis Young Investigator Award 2013.
Nominated by: Mukul Das, Food, Drug & Chemical Toxicology, CSIR – Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India. [email protected]
Q Describe the main highlights of your bioanalytical research & its importance to the bioanalytical community, both now & in the future.
I worked in a well-equipped research laboratory, where I tried to gain hands-on experience working on sensitive analytical instruments. Throughout my research tenure I was exposed to several projects. These diverse projects involved quantitative analysis of xenobiotics, food contaminants, food adulterants and their metabolites in biological samples. Screening and evaluating the biotransformation of these chemicals is highly relevant in terms of the risk associated with human population. My PhD work primarily focused on mycotoxins that pose a worldwide threat as food contaminants. Based on their level of carcinogenicity, these mycotoxins are defined as a different class of carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. I made my contribution towards characterization of hazardous mycotoxins, such as aflatoxin, ochratoxin and patulin. The primary goal of my thesis work was to screen a mycotoxin – patulin – and evaluate its fate as a toxicant in biological system. There were a few troubleshooting and complexity issues dealt with during analytical investigation of this class-3 mycotoxin. Consistent efforts revealed the levels of patulin in apple products and their likely intake in the Indian population. These are the main highlights of my bioanalytical research that may provide relevant information and help to further investigators working in the area of mycotoxins.
Q Where do you see your career in bioanalysis taking you?
Bioanalysis is a specialized part of analytical science, supporting all phases of drug development. It is meant for the quantitative determination of drugs, their metabolites and macromolecules such as DNA and proteins in biological matrices. Apart from its abundant use in pharmacological inventions, bioanalysis offers identification of carcinogens and their biomarkers in diseases. Working in a Food Toxicology Laboratory provided me an opportunity to learn and apply the technical outbreaks in quantification of chemical moieties extracted from food matrices. I can visualize my career in bioanalysis taking me a long way in dealing with analysis of chemical toxicants and biomolecules that may help to resolve complex issues related to human health. I also wish to expand my knowledge and research in the area of metabolomics simultaneously, dealing with the unknown metabolite characterization. I am strongly motivated to keep myself abreast with the growing advancement in technology relevant to bioanalytical research. In the future, I hope to explore new innovative tools and techniques, and offer my services to this highly competitive technical area.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Daniel Kolarich
Supporting comments
By lucky coincidence, Daniel Kolarich and a Waters Micromass ESI-QToF mass spectrometer came into my laboratory at around the same time. Daniel immediately recognized the opportunities offered by a high-end mass spectrometer and committed himself to the development of analytical tools for glycoproteins. Having a biotechnology background, Daniel realized the necessity of viewing the glycan and the protein part as a unit. This led to a respectable number of publications on glycoproteins of biomedical relevance and finally to two Nature Protocols papers, for whom he was prominently responsible. Daniel was never the person to content oneself with mediocrity. Instead of settling for a job in his home town, he headed out to work with the best in his field. After his post-doctoral research in Sydney, Australia, he again decided for the steep and narrow way, in a Max-Planck Institute, alongside the world’s first address for glycan synthesis. His technical skills enable him to run his experiments with cutting edge standards. What convinces me most about his scientific attitude is his strong dedication to apply his analytical skills to real biological questions as the physiological significance of complex carbohydrates will be among the hottest topics in the coming years.
Nominated by: Friedrich Altmann, Department of Chemistry, University of Natural Resources & Applied Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, A-1190, Vienna, Austria. [email protected]
Q Describe the main highlights of your bioanalytical research & its importance to the bioanalytical community, both now & in the future.
Since both the protein backbone and the attached glycans define glycoprotein function, I have always aimed to link both aspects by developing and applying analytical techniques for glycoproteomics. Application of these techniques has enabled me to not just use the information obtained from traditional proteomics and glycomics approaches, but directly link glycan structure data to particular sites within a glycoprotein. This is important since the majority of glycoproteins exhibit several glycosylation sites that often carry different glycan structures. We reported the first comprehensive in-depth characterization of α-1-proteinase inhibitor, an important plasma glycoprotein used in the treatment of α-1-antitrypsin deficiency. We also uncovered previously undescribed molecular differences of different α-1-proteinase inhibitor products on the market. I also developed a highly sensitive technique to identify so-called cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants from plant and insect allergens and discovered a hitherto undescribed wasp allergen. I was also responsible for the first comprehensive glycoproteomic investigation of secretory immunoglobulin A. In the course of this work we also developed ‘GlycoSpectrumScan‘, a freely accessible and web-based bioinformatic tool for glycopeptide identification. Developing and providing these tools to the community has always been and will always be a central focus in my research.
Q Where do you see your career in bioanalysis taking you?
Despite recent advances in glycoproteomics research, there are still many white spots that need to be filled. Issues such as label-free quantitation, comprehensive automated characterization and bioinformatic developments are still in their infancy compared with other ‘omics’ sciences. In addition, synthetically produced compounds have always been a major driver for analytical developments. Thus, my bioanalytical research focus aims to tie these aspects together. In my laboratory we are working on producing glycopeptides by synthetic routes, providing sufficient amounts of well-defined components for quantitative and qualitative glycoproteomics research. We also work on the automation of porous graphitized carbon LC–ESI-MS/MS for glycomics research and on specific enrichment strategies for glycosylated proteins derived from complex biological matrices. These key aspects require progress in bioanalytical developments to make glycoproteomics a broadly accessible tool for the global investigation of biologically relevant glycoproteins. This type of data will subsequently catalyze further functional glycobiology research and be an asset for biochemical research in general.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
D Kolarich and F Altmann have received honoraria from Baxter BioScience for work on the alpha1-antitrypsin. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Mandar Vivekanand Kulkarni
Supporting comments
I have had the honor of mentoring Mandar Kulkarni both during a post-doctoral fellowship and as a starting scientist at a local ‘start-up’ biotechnology company, M/Z Diagnostics. Mandar was trained as a cell biologist and did not begin analytical work until joining my laboratory; however, he has a natural talent for bioanalysis. As the senior scientist at M/Z Diagnostics, he has blossomed into a true leader. In a short period of time, Mandar has mastered the techniques of clinical microbiology and LC–MS/MS analysis. He is also a visionary within the company, offering novel and innovative solutions to problems. I would like to offer my highest recommendation for Mandar’s consideration.
Nominated by: Michael E Hodsdon, Yale University, 55 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8035, USA. [email protected]
Q Describe the main highlights of your bioanalytical research & its importance to the bioanalytical community, both now & in the future.
As a research scientist at M/Z Diagnostics I have led efforts to develop a novel LC–MS assay to detect carbapenemase activity from patient samples. Carbapenemase expression enables bacteria to become resistant to the carbapenem class (last defense) of β-lactamase antibiotics. Spread of infections by such bacteria poses a significant public health threat and costs the healthcare system dearly. A rapid assay for detection of carbapenemase activity is required to reduce the impact of such infections. Without any knowledge of LC–MS or microbiology, development of a rapid analytical LC–MS-based assay for clinically significant bacterial infections highlights my ability to apply my analytical skills to clinically relevant problems that were outside of my field of formal training. The assay exploits chromatographic separation of an antibiotic from its enzymatically hydrolyzed metabolite, combined with MS detection. The detection of a chromatographically separated parent and its subtly modified metabolites for diagnostics is novel, and will allow acceptance of the LC–MS platform for use in the clinical diagnosis arena. It will also trigger development of other assays for diagnosis of diseases that are manifested due to subtle changes in analytes, which can be separated by LC and detected by ESI-MS.
Q Where do you see your career in bioanalysis taking you?
Building a solid foundation for a successful career in bioanalysis has been very rewarding thus far. In the immediate future, clinical trials and US FDA approval of our assay will lead to a groundbreaking change in patient care and acceptance of a novel technology in hospitals across the world for clinical diagnostics. The experience gained from completion of the carbapenem resistance project will allow smooth execution of the development of other similar assays for diagnosis of broad-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant infections. The experience of directing the research from inception to bringing two products to the market will enhance my ability to manage more challenging research projects. I envisage using my strong analytical and management skills to challenge my creativity and turn novel ideas at the bench into tangible products that make a real difference to the lives of patients.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
MV Kulkarni is an NIH-funded author. He is one of three PIs on an NIH SBIR grant #1R43AI102541 awarded jointly to M/Z Diagnostics and Yale University. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Andris Jankevics
Supporting comments
Successful bioanalysis increasingly requires multidisciplinary interactions, between analytical chemists, biologists, clinicians and data analysts. Andris Jankevics combines expertise in many of these areas: he has a strong background in analytical laboratory methods, but combines this with a solid foundation in mathematics, statistics and computer science. During his PhD work, this has allowed him to develop very creative new approaches to metabolomics data processing and visualization, which have enabled a fresh view at our experiments and led to thoroughly improved experimental designs for large-scale data generation. Close interaction with biologists and mass spectrometrists, and the ability to understand the needs of a diverse range of users, have been critical to this project. It is clear that bioanalysis no longer ends with the output from the analytical instrument, but requires a new generation of researchers that are able to make full sense of the accumulated data using increasingly sophisticated computational methods. Andris’ PhD work is an excellent example of what can be achieved by this new approach.
Nominated by: Rainer Breitling, Faculty of Life Sciences, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7DN, UK. [email protected]
Q Describe the main highlights of your bioanalytical research & its importance to the bioanalytical community, both now & in the future.
My PhD research was related to the high-throughput analysis of the metabolome using modern high-resolution MS equipment. Typical experiments in metabolomics produce large amounts of data, and the rapid and reliable computational analysis of such data sets is an important challenge. Together with our biologist partners we developed open-source software for the analysis of metabolomics data. A highly modular design of the software allowed us not only to fine-tune the analytical components relevant for a current study design, but also to share intermediate analysis results with the biologists and analytical chemists on the project in an intuitive way. This new approach facilitated the communication between researchers with different backgrounds and resulted in the rapid discovery of bottlenecks in experimental design, bioanalytical methodology or data analysis. Very often new analytical approaches were suggested by our collaborators, who for the first time had full access to their data, in contrast to previous software tools where users could interact only with the final result or had to switch between several different software packages. In the last 2 years, I co-organized four hands-on workshops teaching new users how to exploit our new tools to make best use of their metabolomics data sets.
Q How do you envisage the field of bioanalysis evolving in the future?
The improvement in technology in the near future will undoubtedly lead to a new generation of mass spectrometers with even higher resolving power and mass accuracy – and with a further explosion of the amount of data generated. I expect that the development of analytical platforms will have to go hand-in-hand with the evolution of the available software tools and that as a result we will achieve a significantly increased coverage of the metabolome in untargeted experiments. Metabolic profiles, which are close representatives of an organism’s phenotype, will increasingly be combined with other global molecular profiles, such as genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data to provide an unprecedented insight into the function of metabolic systems. New powerful and comprehensive bioinformatics techniques will facilitate the adoption of untargeted metabolomics not only as a tool for biological hypothesis generation, but will open up entirely new areas, including applications in rapid disease diagnostics, the development of new drugs targeting metabolism and metabolomics-informed personalized medicine, based on comprehensive time-resolved metabolite profiles for individual patients.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Christopher Benton
Supporting comments
Chris Benton is a remarkable young analytical scientist. He is currently approximately 2.5 years through his PhD on the analysis of porphyrins and porphyrias. In this collaboration between the laboratories of Clinical Biochemistry at Kings College Hospital, London (UK) and the department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine at the University of Leicester (UK), Chris has driven a whole series of experiments, which has culminated in seven peer-reviewed journal articles and one review. Additionally, he has a number of manuscripts in various stages of preparation. At every point Chris has exploited different analytical techniques from HPLC to UPLC, from MS/MS to traveling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry, to enable improved separation of porphyrins and related molecular species. Throughout his time within my group, Chris has been exceptionally quick to learn about MS, LC and the new column chemistries that are now commercially available. Chris has contributed significantly to the field of porphyrin analysis and this has been recognized by several requests to deliver talks at conferences and workshops. Chris is a very hard working student, extremely efficient in his day-to-day working and develops very clear strategies for executing experiments. I think Chris is more than deserving of this prize.
Nominated by: Donald JL Jones, University of Leicester, Room 526, Robert Kilpatrick Clinical Sciences Building, Leicester Royal Infirmary, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 5WW, UK. [email protected]
Q Describe the main highlights of your bioanalytical research & its importance to the bioanalytical community, both now & in the future.
Throughout my PhD and work experiences I have developed and validated robust, sensitive and specific UHPLC–MS/MS assays, using various online and offline sample preparation techniques, for routine biochemical diagnosis, clinical research and a CRO. In today’s laboratories it is important that assays are efficient yet environmentally friendly. As a result, I have developed or replaced existing HPLC methods with UHPLC and ‘superficially porous’ particle columns, improving resolution and increasing sensitivity of detection, while reducing assay time and solvent consumption, making them perfectly suited to low-cost and high-throughput laboratories. Most recently, during my PhD, I have focused on using UHPLC–MS/MS to investigate the pathogenesis of disorders of the heme biosynthetic pathway, together with developing assays for routine clinical diagnosis. Until recently, analytical methods for the diagnosis of the acute hepatic porphyrias were laborious, nonspecific and required convoluted sample derivatization not suited to a routine clinical laboratory. Using HILIC–MS/MS I have developed analytical methods for the direct and rapid biochemical diagnosis of the acute hepatic porphyrias, which have replaced conventional methods and are now being implemented internationally. Furthermore, the methods have sparked interest for clinical research and are being applied to targeted metabolomics to further understand the metabolic disorders.
Q How do you envisage the field of bioanalysis evolving in the future?
During my PhD at King’s College Hospital, I observed how LC–MS is becoming an integral part of bioanalysis in routine clinical chemistry laboratories. The improved specificity that LC–MS offers over spectrophotometry and immunoassays dramatically improves the accuracy of patient results and, subsequently, patient care. I feel the specificity of LC–MS, combined with immunoassays, will make targeted metabolomics and proteomics much more accurate in routine and research laboratories compared with immunoassays alone. I think advances in instrumentation will see LC–MS become common place in automated-based hospital laboratories, dramatically increasing sample throughput. I believe ion mobility MS will play a greater role in bioanalysis for small- and large-molecule analysis, ultimately as the resolving power of ion mobility improves. The ability to remove isobaric interferences that chromatographically co-elute and separate unresolvable isomers in milliseconds is very advantageous, particularly when coupled to high-resolution accurate mass MS.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.