Trinkaus graduated in 1940 with a B.A. in biology from Wesleyan University[3] and in 1941 with an M.A. from Columbia University. In 1941 he matriculated at Johns Hopkins University, but WW II interrupted his graduate study.[4] In August 1942 he was drafted into the U.S. Army. In the spring of 1943 he went on leave for a week to marry Galina Gorokhoff, whom he had met a few years earlier at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. After being stationed in the United States and training U.S. Army Air Force officers in the use of oxygen equipment, he was sent to Italy in the autumn of 1944 to train officers in the use of G-suits. He was discharged from the U.S. Army in December 1945.[5] In 1948 he graduated with a Ph.D. in embryology from Johns Hopkins University.[4]
In 1948 Trinkaus became an instructor in Yale University's department of zoology (which later became the department of biology). He was soon promoted to full professor, retaining that position until he retired as professor emeritus. With few exceptions, he spent his summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.[4] For the academic year 1959–1960 he was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Collège de France.[4] During that year he met the woman, Madeleine Robineaux, who was to become his second wife. After divorcing their spouses, they married in October 1963. His 1969 book Cells into Organs. The Forces That Shape the Embryo became a classic treatise on cell and tissue movement during embryonic development[1][6] and cell invasion of bodily tissues.[4] A greatly enlarged 2nd edition was published in 1984.[7]
He found a particularly appropriate research subject in the fish Fundulus heteroclitus. The transparent eggs and embryos of this teleost served his needs, as much of his research was primarily observational. Though he used dye-stains and transmission electron microscopy, many of his research publications were based on simple photomicrographic images of the teleost eggs. Through observation and dissection, Trinkaus became an expert on the developmental processes occurring within the eggs. His expertise led him to clarify the relevant terminology, as he named or renamed several internal structures including the yolk syncytial layer (YSL) and yolk cytoplasmic layer (YCL).[4]
Trinkaus was a member of NASA's U.S. Space Biology Advisory Panel from 1976 to 1979.[4] He was the author or co-author of about 50 scientific articles during his career. His autobiography was published posthumously in 2004.[8][9]
Trinkaus, J. P. (1951). "A study of the mechanism of epiboly in the egg of Fundulus heteroclitus". Journal of Experimental Zoology. 118 (2): 269–319. doi:10.1002/jez.1401180204.
Erickson, C.A.; Trinkaus, J.P. (1976). "Microvilli and blebs as sources of reserve surface membrane during cell spreading". Experimental Cell Research. 99 (2): 375–384. doi:10.1016/0014-4827(76)90595-4. PMID1269533.
Betchaku, T.; Trinkaus, J. P. (1978). "Contact relations, surface activity, and cortical microfilaments of marginal cells of the enveloping layer and of the yolk syncytial and yolk cytoplasmic layers of Fundulus before and during epiboly". Journal of Experimental Zoology. 206 (3): 381–426. doi:10.1002/jez.1402060310. PMID568653.
Keller, R.E.; Trinkaus, J.P. (1987). "Rearrangement of enveloping layer cells without disruption of the epithelial permeability barrier as a factor in Fundulus epiboly". Developmental Biology. 120 (1): 12–24. doi:10.1016/0012-1606(87)90099-6. PMID3817284.
^Pierce, Michael (1985). "Review of Cells into Organs. The Forces That Shape the Embryo by John Philip Trinkaus". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 60: 79–80. doi:10.1086/414213.
^Harris, Albert K. (2004). "Review of Embryologist: My Eight Decades in Developmental Biology". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 79: 78. doi:10.1086/421612.
