Issue: Summer 2012 | Posted: June 18, 2012

Old School

Union alumnus plays key role in epilepsy research

Michal Kliman - photos by Steve Green/Vanderbilt University

The phrase “fruit fly brains” might be the punch line for a joke or someone’s creative expression of microscopic size.

But to Michal Kliman (’99), fruit fly brains could unlock valuable information about the nature of epilepsy.

Since graduating with a degree in chemistry from Union, Kliman has entered top-level medical research, both as a graduate student at Vanderbilt University and internationally in collaboration with other researchers.

A native of what was then known as Czechoslovakia, Kliman received his Ph.D. in chemistry at Vanderbilt and remains there as a postdoctoral research associate.

He is part of what is known at Vanderbilt as the McLean Group: a research team dedicated to detailed work in structural mass spectrometry using the method ion mobility – mass spectrometry under the tutelage of Dr. John A. McLean.

“I am delighted to be a part of the scientific community at Vanderbilt that believes in and nurtures collaborative projects,” says Kliman. “Every one of the stories of scientific discovery I am involved in, including lipid studies in epilepsy, are written in collaboration with other research groups.”

Such studies have advanced significantly in recent years. They determine the size and mass of bio-particles and ultimately their composition. The advances enable researchers to measure much smaller differences in size and mass than previously achieved by other methods.

This is where fruit fly brains become important.

Kliman applied ion mobility measurements to fruit fly brains by studying what is called a Drosophila model of epilepsy. Species of the Drosophila genus of fruit fly are studied frequently in the field of genetics, and it is believed that the reactions of brains of specifically mutated fruit flies to impact (such as when the container in which they are kept is agitated) could hold clues about how epilepsy develops. Kliman and coworkers analyzed naturally occurring molecules called lipids and used ion mobility mass spectrometry to identify the individual lipid molecules.

This combination of ion mobility measurements and mass spectrometry results could prove vital.

Kliman was named one of 16 outstanding Ph.D. students from 13 countries in the 2011 SciFinder Academic Exchange Program. The participants spent Chemical Abstracts Service senior management. They discussed “insights on global trends in chemistry from the perspective of young scientists and to help advance the science of informatics,” according to a CAS news release.

Kliman is quick to credit the foundational knowledge of science he gained in his undergraduate years: “My professors at Union University inculcated those personal and professional disciplines that allowed me to flourish in this vibrant environment.”

In 2010, Kliman won the American Chemical Society Student Members Excellence in Teaching Award. He lives in the Nashville area with his wife Viera and their three children.