Elaine L. Bearer is an American neuroscientist, pathologist and composer.
Education
Bearer received her Bachelor's of Music from The Manhattan School of Music in Theory, June 1970. She received the Masters of Art from New York University, where her thesis was Structural Innovation in the String Quartets of Haydn. She received the combined MD-PhD degree from University of California San Francisco. Prior to studies at The Manhattan School, Bearer was a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, first at the Ecole Americaine des Beau Arts in Fontainebleau and continuing in Boulanger's home on Rus Ballu in Paris.
Career
After a one-year post-doctoral fellowship with Lelio Orci in Geneva, Bearer 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.
Scientific contributions
Bearer's early scientific contributions include the first ultrastructural imaging of lipid rafts in cell membranes that mediate cell signaling ; the first ultrastructural imaging of endothelial fenestral diaphragms that allow transport of solutes between blood and tissue, and the first biochemical discovery of Arp2 and 2E4/kaptin, proteins that regulate actin dynamics in platelets,. Recent contributions since 2007 include imaging of the brain in living mouse models of human neuropsychological disorders, such as Down syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, viral infections of the brain, drugs of abuse, 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.
Research details
Bearer's research began with studies 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 investigation, she identified proteins that drive filament formation and mapped one, kaptin/2E4, on human chromosome 19. This work revealed that mutations in the promoter region of kaptin/2E4 lead to inherited deafness. Using herpes simplex virus as a tool and the squid giant axon as a model, her lab then discovered that amyloid precursor protein, whoes proteolytic product Abeta is the major component of Alzheimer’s plaques, recruited cytoskeletal motors to cargo for transport within axons. Live video recording of green-labeled HSV and red-labeled APP and high resolution immunogold electronmicroscopy demonstrated that intracellular HSV viral particles interact with cellular APP. Her work on HSV has been targeted towards understanding the HSV-APP connections. In 2004, Bearer began developing magnetic resonance imaging with Russ Jacobs, John D. Roberts, and Scott Fraser for live imaging of circuitry in mouse models of human neurological and psychiatric disorders. Bearer and Jacobs developed manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of neural connections and brain activity in transgenic mouse models of human disorders.
Music
Bearer is a composer, who has had performances annually of new compositions. While at Brown University from 1991–2009, she was a professor in both Biology and Medicine and in Music, and sheholds a secondary appointment in the Music Department at University of New Mexico. Her piano concerto, Ode to the White Crown Sparrow, was premiered by Tyler Lincoln and the Symphony of the Redwoods; Ah-tosh-mit Overture for orchestra was commissioned for the 125th anniversary of University of California, San Francisco, and performed by the UCSF Symphony under the baton of Jonathan Davis; the Magdalene Passion, an hour-long oratorio for five soloists, chorus, organ and chamber orchestra, was commissioned by the Providence Singers and premiered by Julian Wachner, conductor; Ultrasonic, a symphonic tone poem, was commissioned and performed by St Mathew's Music Guild in Pacific Palisades under the direction of Tom Neenan and multiple choral works with various instrumental accompaniments have been performed by the Pasadena Promusica led by Stephen Grimm. In March 2018, Pasadena Promusica premiered Bearer's L'alma rapita for chorus and string quartet inspired by Carlo Gesualdo, the 16-17th century madrigalist. Bearer's piece for solo flute with interactive video projections, Density silver water, was performed as part of the John Donald Robb Composer's Showcase in New Mexico by Jesse Tatum with video projections by John B Carpenter in March 2018; and The Replication Machine, for viola-clarinet duo with readings and audience participation was presented to Bruce M. Alberts for his birthday at the Metropolitan Club in San Francisco in April 2018. A CD of Bearer's music was issued by Albany Records. The score of her Nicholls Trio, written as a tribute to John Graham Nicholls, is published by Hildegaard Publishing Company.
