Aaron Beedle
Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences; Chair, Faculty Senate
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Faculty Senate
Background
Aaron Beedle received her PhD in neuroscience in 2003 under the mentorship of Gerald Zamponi at the University of Calgary. Her studies involved cloning, expression and functional characterization of voltage-gated calcium channels with important relevance to the modulation of these channels in pain pathways. Her technical repertoire for these studies included molecular biology, electrophysiology, pharmacology, biochemistry and cell imaging.
She joined Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Kevin Campbell at the University of Iowa to gain expertise in mouse genetics, mouse phenotyping (behavioral, physiological, biochemical and histological) and muscular dystrophy for her postdoctoral studies. She developed mouse models to better understand the disease process in dystroglycan glycosylation-deficient muscular dystrophies, most closely linked to Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy.
In 2010, she began her independent laboratory in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy. Her laboratory focused on understanding changes in muscle regeneration and cellular signaling processes in muscular dystrophies, with the goal to translate these processes into new therapeutic strategies. Notably, Beedle's lab published a study in 2016 identifying inhibitors in the mTORC1 signaling pathway as potentially beneficial in dystroglycanopathy muscular dystrophy. She also created new tools for the muscular dystrophy field, including novel monoclonal antibodies to detect the dystroglycan core protein. Beedle's academic teaching included physiology and pathophysiology in the PharmD program, physiology in the BS Pharmaceutical Sciences program, human genetics, disease genetics and animal studies (genetics, pharmacology) in the graduate program. She also trained many high school, undergraduate and graduate students in laboratory research. She was a University of Georgia Lilly Teaching Fellow from 2012-2014 and CTL Teacher of the Week in 2016. In 2017, she was approved for promotion to associate professor with tenure at the University of Georgia.
In 2017, Beedle joined the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Binghamton University as a tenured associate professor. She is a member and vice-chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Beedle oversees the teaching mission of the department and coordinates and teaches in PHRM 502 Foundations II: Introductory Integrated Biologial Sciences. In her research, Beedle's laboratory focus in regeneration and cellular signaling pathways in muscular dystrophy continues and the lab is embarking on new preclinical studies in dystroglycan-related muscular dystrophy therapies, funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Beedle has published numerous scientific research articles, reviews and book chapters in her career with more than 1,500 citations.
Education
- BS, Queen's University
- PhD, University of Calgary
Research Interests
- Muscular dystrophy
- disease pathogenesis and therapeutics
- Dystroglycan
- glycosylation
- the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex
- Skeletal muscle
- heart
- and brain function
- Mouse genetic models
