Elaine Bearer
American neurobiologist and pathologist
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| Intro | American neurobiologist and pathologist | |
| Places | United States of America | |
| is | Pathologist Neurobiologist | |
| Work field | Biology | |
| Gender |
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The details
Biography
Elaine L. Bearer BM, MA, MD-PhD, FAAAS, FCAP, is an American neuroscientist, pathologist and composer of serious music. She received her Bachelor’s of Music from The Manhattan School of Music in Theory with studies in composition with Nadia Boulanger at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Fountainebleau and in Paris, and Computer Science at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, PA. She received the Master’s of Art from New York University, where her thesis was Structural Innovation in the String Quartets of Haydn. After post-baccalaureate training in science at Stanford, where she was a teaching assistant to Donald Kennedy in the Program in Human Biology, she received the combined MD-PhD degree from University of California San Francisco (UCSF), as the first graduate of its new Medical Scientist Training Program. After a one year post-doctoral fellowship with Lelio Orci in Geneva, she returned to UCSF for residency and fellowship training-- clinically in Pathology and Medical Genetics with Charlie Epstein, and scientifically in Biochemistry and Biophysics with Bruce Alberts. She was recruited to a tenure track position at Brown University in 1991 and rose in the ranks to full professorship. In 2009 University of New Mexico recruited her to an endowed tenured professorship and as Vice Chair for Research. Her faculty website at UNM can be found at pathology
Current Focus of Research Projects:
- Early life stress and the developing mind
- Mapping the brain in mouse models of human disease by combined magnetic resonance imaging, classical histologic tract tracing, and molecular pathology
- Molecular mechanisms of axonal transport with computational predictive mathematical modeling
- Music and Mind: The continuum of the mind-brain interface, and perception and impact of music on the mind
Contributions to Science
Prof. Bearer’s early scientific contributions include the first ultrastructural imaging of lipid rafts in cell membranes that mediate cell signaling (Bearer and Friend, J. Cell Biology, 1982); the first ultrastructural imaging of endothelial fenestral diaphragms that allow transport of solutes between blood and tissue (Bearer and Orci, J. Cell Biology, 1985), and the first biochemical discovery of Arp2 and 2E4/kaptin , proteins that regulate actin dynamics in platelets, (Bearer, Yu and Abraham, Mol Biol Cell, 1993; Bearer et al Ann. of Hum. Genet, 2000).
Recent contributions include imaging of the brain in living mouse models of human neuropsychological disorders, such as Down syndrome (Bearer et al. 2007), Alzheimer’s disease (Gallagher et al 2012), viral infections of the brain (Cheng et al 2012), drugs of abuse (Bearer et al 2009, Zhang et al 2010; Gallagher et al 2013), and she is currently working on the functional anatomy and epigenetic mechanisms of changes in the brain associated with PTSD and early life adversity. These more recent contributions were made using magnetic resonance imaging coupled with transgenic mouse models, biochemistry, and optical microscopy.
Bearer is currently the Harvey Family Professor in Pathology at University of New Mexico, a visiting professor at California Institute of Technology, and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
More Research Details
Bearer’s research began with studies at the finest detail of membrane dynamics involved in synaptic transmitter release. She developed imaging labels for anionic lipids and made the earliest observations of membrane lipid rafts and the protein biochemistry of actin modulators. During this development, she identified proteins that drive filament formation and mapped one, kaptin/2E4, on human chromosome 19. These discoveries showed that mutations in the promoter region of kaptin/2E4 lead to inherited deafness.
Using herpes virus as a tool and the squid giant axon as a model, her lab then discovered that amyloid precursor protein, the major component in Alzheimer’s plaques, recruited cytoskeletal motors to cargo for transport. In 2004, as a Moore Distinguished Scholar at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), she began developing magnetic resonance imaging with Russ Jacobs, Jack Roberts, and Scott Fraser for live imaging of circuitry in mouse models of human neurological and psychiatric disorders. Bearer and Jacobs are known for their development of manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) of neural connections and brain activity in transgenic mouse models of human disorders.
Musical Contributions
Prior to her scientific career, Bearer studied musical composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and received Bachelor’s of Music from the Manhattan School and a Master’s of Art from New York University in New York City. She continues as an active composer, with performances annually of new compositions At Brown University. She was on the biomedical and music faculty from 1991-2009, and now holds a secondary appointment in the Music Department at University of New Mexico.
Education and Certification Information
MD-PhD, Medical Scientist Training Program
PhD in Experimental Pathology, Thesis "Anionic Lipid Domains in Cell Membranes"
Chancellor's Award for Medical Student Research
University of California, San Francisco, CA
1977-1983
Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow
Department of Morphologie and Embryologie,
Centre Medical Universitaire, University of Geneva, Switzerland
With Lelio Orci, M.D.
1983-1984
Internship and Residency:
Department of Pathology, University of California at San Francisco, CA
Specialty in Pathology
1984-1986
Clinical Fellowships:
Surgical Pathology, Cytopathology and Medical Genetics; with experience in Neuropathology
Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco
1986-1990
Bank of America-Gianini Fellow
American Cancer Society Senior Post-Doctoral Fellowships (concurrent)
Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA
With Bruce M. Alberts
1987-1990
Medical Licenses in New Mexico and in California
Board Certifications:
American Board of Pathology (Anatomic Pathology, 1986)
Search PubMed:
Elaine L. Bearer on PubMed