Elaine Bearer, MD, PhD

University of New Mexico

Contact Information

Elaine Bearer, MD, PhD
Albuquerque, United States

Professional Information

Harvey Family Professor and Vice Chair for Research
University of New Mexico
http://pathology.unm.edu/research/faculty-laboratories/bearer-research-and-schol…

Education

Stanford University, Human Biol, 1977; UCSF MD-PhD 1983 Geneva Switzerland, CME, post-doc, 1984 UCSF residency and fellowships, Pathology, Medical Genetics and Biochemistry-Biophysics, 1984-1991

Bio

Bearer’s studies of the brain zoom down to the molecular detail of the squid, platelets, and cell culture. They also explore whole-brain imaging by magnetic resonance of circuitry dynamics and changes over time in living mouse models of human mental disorders, neurological disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. Bearer collaborates with Russ Jacobs at the California Institute of Technology for high field MR imaging of living mouse brains.

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 lead to inherited deafness.