Living cells are dynamic—transporting components inside, changing their shape, and locomoting. In the central nervous system, this dynamic behavior establishes, maintains and modifies neuronal connections. We use a range of microscopic imaging and molecular techniques to understand the mechanisms of these dynamics using model systems, including squid giant axon, transport of Herpes simplex virus, and human blood platelets. These studies address fundamental questions pertaining to learning and memory.

I also direct a medical clerkship in Guatemala, and hold an appointment as a composer in the Music Department. Please see the links below my photo for more information.

Biography

As a biomedical scientist/engineer and a composer of music, I have long been fascinated by the similarity in the way scientists and musicians conceptualize. Each pays specific, focused and sustained attention at a high level of detail to perceptual experience, and applies logic to analyze and recreate quantal events occurring over time. My early education was exclusively in music, which I studied at Carnegie Tech, with Nadia Boulanger, and in New York, with an interest in computer "algorhythms" to generate sound. Beyond the mechanics of acoustical perception, of interest to both biomechanical engineers and musicians, also lies the conceptual process linking detailed attention to generative creativity. I work and live at this interface.

Institutions

University California San Francisco

Research Description

Biomedical Research and Engineering
We are interested in biological movements. How do eukaryotic cells transport components from one location to another, how do they change shape, interact with their environment and translocate?

These cellular dynamics depend on proteins and are crucial for a wide range of biological processes—embryogenesis, blood clotting, inflammation, and formation and function of the nervous system. Pathologic derangement of cell movements underlies many disease processes. We use a combination of microscopy and molecular biology to study cellular dynamics at many levels in a variety of systems.

We build systems to measure rates of movement and kinetics of molecular interactions. Using information from these studies, we design new biological systems from our molecular parts list. This work is supported by four grants, two RO1s from NIH, one very large grant from NCRR and a small NSF grant.

Two of our most exciting recent discoveries are:
1) Herpes simplex virus, the cause of the common cold sore, associates with the amyloid precursor protein of Alzheimer's disease.
2) Identification of a protein complex, Arp2/3, required for shape change.

Awards

Academic Honors, Awards and Honorary Degrees (selected):
America's Top Pathologists, Consumer Reports 2007
American Chemical Society Symposium: Chemist-Composers "Music and Mind" 2006
Dart Scholar of Learning and Memory, Marine Biological Laboratory, 2005
Moore Distinguished Scholar, Moore Foundation, California Institute of Technology, 2004-2005
Distinguished Neuroscience Lectureship Award, Rosenstiel BioMedical Center, Department of Neuroscience, and the NIEHS Marine Biology Center, University of Miami Medical School, 2003
Honor Wall of the American Indian, Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, 2003
Dean's Award for Excellence in Medical School Teaching, Brown Medical School, 2003
Dean's Award for Excellence in Medical Student Teaching, Brown Medical School, 2002
Public Service Award, Foundation for Children and the Aged, 2002
Honorary Diploma, Oglala Sioux Indian College, 2002
Dean's Award for Excellence in Medical Student Teaching, Brown Medical School, 2001
Award for Humanism in the Practice of Medicine, Jaffe Foundation, 1999
Frederik Bang Summer Research Fellowship, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 1999
Brown University, Master of Arts Degree, ad eundem, 1997

Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Awards:
American Cancer Society, Senior Post-doctoral Fellowship, 1989-1991
Frederik Bang Summer Research Fellowship, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 1989
Giannini-Bank of America Fellowship, l987-1988
Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship, University of Geneva, Switzerland, l983-1984
Dean's Prize for Medical Student Research, University of California, San Francisco, l983
First Place, Graduate Student Research Award, University of California, San Francisco, l982
Chancellor's Award for Research, University of California, San Francisco, 1981

Other Selected Honors:
Featured in The Scientist, June 15, 2002
Featured in Lancet, June 23, 2002
National Institutes of Health, NIGMS, Findings, September 2002 (NIH publication for Congress and public outreach)
Featured in Nature, May 6, 2000

Music Awards (selected):
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, biography included as composer
Munro Memorial Lectureship, Division of Humanities, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 2004 (for Music and the Mind)
Composer in residence, Unitarian-Universalist Musician's Network, 2004
ASCAP award for Creative Programming for performance of Seaselves, 1994
Meet the Composer Award (for Piano Concerto), 1988
Contemporary Recording Society Composition Award, 1987
Composer in Residence, Omaha Arts Festival, 1973
Scholarship for Excellence, The Manhattan School of Music, 1970
Certificat d'assistance, Ecoles d'Art Americaines, Palais de Fontainebleau, France, 1967

Affiliations

Membership in Professional Societies:
American Society for Investigative Pathology
American Society for Cell Biology
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Society for Neuroscience
Society for Developmental Biology (1991-2001)
Rhode Island Society of Pathologists
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
Institute fro Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Women in Engineering
American Musicological Society
American Society for Composers and Performers (ASCAP)

Membership in Scientific Academies:
California Academy of the Sciences (1987-present)
New York Academy of Sciences (1999-present)
US Canadian Academy of Pathology (2006-present)

Membership on Committees for National Professional Societies:
Member, Program Planning Committee, American Society for Investigative Pathology, 2000- 2002
Member, Committee for Career Development, Women and Minorities, American Society for Investigative Pathology, 1999- 2003
Judge, Panel of judges, Minority Affairs Symposium, Graduate Student Poster Session, American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting, San Francisco, CA, Dec. 13-18, 2003.

Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA
Member, Housing Committee, 1989-1994
Member, Education Committee, 1994-1999
Chair, Search Committee for Embryology Course Director
Member, Steering Committee, Brown-MBL Joint Graduate Program, 2002-present
Member of the Corporation, Marine Biological Laboratory Corporation (1991-present)

Study Sections:
National Science Foundation, POWR Program, 1997-1998
Panelist (regular member of panel reviewing research grants and advising on funding
programs to increase women in science)
National Institutes of Health, National Council for Research Resources,
Member (ad hoc), Study Section "Molecular Medicine", 1999
National Science Foundation, Program in Cell Biology
Advisor and panelist, (regular member on panel reviewing research grants)
"Cellular Organization Panel", 1999-2003
Reviewer, Cellular Organization Panel, April 27, 2005
American Heart Association, Northeast Regional
Advisor and panelist (regular member on study section reviewing research grants), 2002-present
NASA
Member (regular), Study Section "Cellular & Molecular Biology Panel" to review research
grants, 2003-present.
National Institutes of Health
Member (ad hoc), Study Section ("Hemostasis and Thrombosis") (ad hoc), 2004
Member (ad hoc), Study Section (Cell Development and Function 4), 2004
Member (invited to be regular member), Study Section (Cell Development and Function 4), 2005-2008.
Member, Study Section to review PO1 for NIHLB, Nov. 9-10, 2004
Alzheimer's Association, Grant Review participant, 2004-present

Fellowship Selection Committees:
Rhodes Fellowship Selection Committee (Rhode Island), 1995-1998
Howard Foundation, Fellowship Selection Committee, 1995

Referee for the Following Journals:
Cancer Research
Molecular Biology of the Cell
American Journal of Pathology
Laboratory Investigation
Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton
Journal of Cell Biology
Analytical Biochemistry
Blood
Developmental Biology

Editorial Boards:
Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton (2004-2009)
Research in Human Development (2003-present)
(Invited to serve as editor for Supplementary volume on Coordinate Activity of Genes and Environment on Mind-Brain Continuum scheduled for completion Spring 2005)

Consulting:
Sangamo BioSciences, Inc.
Point Richmond Tech Center
501 Canal Blvd., Suite A100
Richmond, CA 98404

XDx, Inc.
750 Gateway Blvd., Suite H
South San Francisco, CA 94080

Intralytix, Inc.
The Warehouse at Camden Yards
323 W. Camden Street, Suite 675
Baltimore, MD 21201

Reify Corporation
101 Main Street, Eighteenth Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142

Wolfram Research
Corporate Headquarters
Wolfram Research
100 Trade Center Drive
Champaign, IL 61820

Morehouse University
Atlanta, Georgia
(For the Dean, JK Haynes, Dean of Science and Mathematics)

Genentech
South San Francisco
(Invited for Visiting Scientist position in Pathology group)

Funded Research

This work is supported by two RO1s from NIH (NIGMS and NINDS), and a small NSF grant. In addition, I am Director of the Phenotyping Core for the large Center of Biological Research Excellence (COBRE) grant, "The New Stem Cell Biology" from NCRR which supports my development of imaging technology at Brown. We also receive support from private foundations, including The Moore Foundation and Dart Neuroscience LLP.

Teaching Experience

Graduate Programs: Bearer is on the faculty for four graduate programs at Brown: MCB, Pathobiology, Brain Science Program, and the Brown-MBL joint graduate program. She is also avialable as a thesis advisor for MD_pHD students.

Courses: Bio 280: Bearer has taught Bio280 since 1992, except for one sabbatical. This course is the last in a three semester series of pathology courses offered to medical students. It provides the knowledge base necessary for licensure board examinations and for clinical clerkships, to which students graduate after completing this course. The goals of the course are three fold: 1) to provide necessary knowledge for licensure; 2) to provide foundation for life-long learning in the basic pathologic mechanisms fo disease; 3) to inspire students to learn creatively and apply their own unique abilities to the understanding of medical practice and biomedical sciences.

Bio 286: This is a graduate semiinar course and serves as a companion to BIo 186, General Pathology. It is required for Pathobiology Graduate Students. In this course, graduate students are provided with a basic understanding of human disease processes and encouraged to think critically about the evidence used to describe them. The course is focused at the translational interface between basic science and the practice of medicine and the goal is for students to acquire conceptual skills that allow them to contribute at translational boundaries.

Bearer also lectures in Virology, Cell Biology, and other pathobiology, as well as in neurosciences and music courses.

Bearer directs the medical student Elective Clerkship in Guatemala. Medical students should contact her about this (see link).

Bearer accepts a small number of compositions students to study musical composition.

Independent study (Bio 195=6 )for undergraduates and rotations and thesis projects for graduate students (Bio 295-6) are available in the Bearer lab. Email for more information.

Courses Taught

• Elective Clinical Cerkship in Guatemala (BIo360)
• Independent Research (BI0195)
• Systemic Pathology (BI0280)
• Topics in General Pathology (BI0286)

View My Full Publication List in pdf format

Selected Publications

• Please see "My Research" and the link to "My music page" under my photo