Winston Timp, a professor in the biomedical engineering department here at Hopkins, heads a lab that explores everything from the fiery metabolism of hummingbirds to the causes of colon and pancreatic cancer. Timp’s lab is located in Clark Hall.
“I really enjoy coming up with the ideas, looking at the data, and trying to figure out what’s happening,” Timp said.
For Timp, research began far before he acquired his lab in 2013. As an undergraduate student, he studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and majored in biochemistry, chemistry, physics and electrical engineering.
In 2007, he began working jointly with Andre Levchenko and Dr. Andrew Feinberg, a Bloomberg Professor in the department of biomedical engineering, to complete his postdoctoral research at Hopkins. At that time, Levchenko was focusing on how signaling pathways affect cancer and Dr. Feinberg was using epigenetics to investigate cancer.
Epigenetics, the study of the epigenome, which is a portion of each cell distinct from the cell’s main genome, is one of the primary focuses of Timp’s lab. Though the epigenome is not comprised of DNA material like the primary human genome, it does play a role in the expression of DNA.
Not all of the DNA contained in the nucleus is expressed. The epigenome not only guides which DNA the each cell expresses but also provides the instructions that give each cell its identity. It’s what helps make a skin cell different from a stomach cell.
While Timp’s current work takes some inspiration from the work he did with Dr. Feinberg and Levchenko, he focuses more on the biophysical level of epigenetics as well as technological development. Timp divides his work into three main projects: Sequencing technology development, infectious disease and epigenetics in cancer.
In terms of technology development, Timp focuses on expanding the use of DNA methylation, a phenomenon that places marks on specific DNA segments to prevent or induce protein binding. Right now, his lab is exploring the limits of the minION nanopore sequencer in regards to detecting DNA methylation. The sequencer is a small device, approximately the size of a deck of cards, that is capable of sequencing long segments of DNA. The device costs approximately $1000 and, while it is designed primarily for DNA sequencing, it has the potential to be a valuable tool when paired with DNA methylation.
Timp is also utilizing sequencing technology in a rather unexpected way. His lab is working on sequencing the genome of the hummingbird. Hummingbirds have heart rates that can surpass 1,200 beats per minute, they can drop their body temperatures by over 20 degrees during the night and have a metabolism that requires them to consume between 1.5-3 times their weight in food every day. Consequently, the hummingbird provides an interesting genetic enigma. Timp is working to not only sequence the hummingbird genome, but to then compare it to other birds like chickens, as well as to the human genome.
Timp’s second area of study, infectious diseases, was inspired in part by repeated trips to the doctor with his children. He began to notice a pattern of diagnosis for certain diseases such as pink eye that can be caused both by a virus and by bacteria. When diagnosing pink eye, doctors can often only make an educated guess as to the source of the infection and prescribe medication based on that guess.
In order to make a definite diagnosis, doctors would need more information on the genetic code of the pathogen causing the disease, viral RNA or bacterial DNA. Timp is confident that the integration of a small DNA sequencer, such as the nanopore minION sequencer, could drastically improve infectious disease diagnosis.
Because the sequencer is small, portable and fast, it would provide a simple way of transforming disease diagnosis from estimation to certainty. The implications, however, don’t stop there. Routine use of a DNA sequencer in clinical work could help to identify unique or new infectious diseases as well as strains of the flu virus, which could improve vaccine creation. Finally, with clear diagnoses, Timp believes that the amount of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed each year, that compound the increasing problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria, would be reduced.
The lab’s third area of work, epigenetics and cancer, focuses specifically on colon cancer and pancreatic cancer. Timp’s interest in these two cancers stems from the fact that colon cancer is linked to a specific type of gut bacteria and pancreatic cancer is uniquely identifiable by mutated genetic material as well as lost genetic material in cells.
While Timp admits his job may not be the most glamorous in the world, he makes it clear that there is nothing else he would rather be doing. He is motivated not only by the thrill of discovery but also by the potential to make lasting improvements to the medical and scientific communities. Timp says that one of the most difficult aspects of his job is selecting certain research questions to explore.
“The hardest thing is saying no to good, new ideas because you know you won’t be able to give them the time and attention that they need,” Timp said.
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