Elmus Beale, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
e-mail: elmus.beale@ttuhsc.edu
Biography
I received my BS in Microbiology from Oklahoma State University in 1970, I began my research career with Anthony Means at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, and moved with him to Baylor College of Medicine (PhD 1977). My thesis research was to investigate how FSH stimulates gene expression via cAMP in the testis. I then took a postdoctoral position with Daryl Granner at the University of Iowa where I pursued my interest in how cAMP regulates genes. At Iowa, I cloned PEPCK cDNA and its gene and participated in the discovery that insulin and cAMP control transcription of the gene. In 1984, I took my first faculty position here at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. I did a one year sabbatical with Walter Wahli at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition to my research, I teach embryology and human anatomy to medical students. I also teach aspects of genome organization, bioinformatics, biochemistry, cell biology and developmental biology in several graduate courses. I am a past member of the editorial board for the journal Endocrinology, and I am a current member of the editorial board of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. I served the American Heart Association, Texas Affiliate as a grant reviewer and Research Allocations & Advisory Committee member (1994-2000), and I am an ad hoc member of the NIH/NIDDK B Study Section (2006-07). My hobbies are travel and golf.
Research
My long-standing interest has been directed at obesity and diabetes which increase the risk of many diseases including atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, cancer, and polycystic ovarian disease, to name a few. For many years my lab has focused on understanding the function and regulation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK). We proposed that defective regulation of PEPCK could cause obesity and/or diabetes in humans (see Beale et al., Trends Endocrinol. Metab. 15: 129-135, 2004). It was recently discovered that the worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, is an excellent model for studying human obesity and insulin action. In order to take advantage of the power of genetics that is possible with C. elegans, I took the 2004 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course on C. elegans and adapted them as a model system in my lab. My intention is to use these worms to discover important mechanisms that also take place in humans. We recently made the novel observation that induction of gene expression is abnormal in worms that lack an AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). This observation is important because AMPK is now known to be the "master regulator" of fuel storage and use yet only two publications that deal with C. elegans AMPK have appeared. We are now expanding on our observation to understand how AMPK controls gene expression. AMPK research is growing exponentially, and we are among the first to exploit worms to investigate how it works and how it involved in diabetes and obesity.
Recent Publications
Beale, E.G., J.R. Dedman, and A.R. Means, (1977) Isolation and characterization of a protein from rat testis which inhibits cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase and phosdiesteraseJ Biol Chem 252: 6322-7. Link to article
Beale, E.G., J.L.Hartley, and D.K. Granner, (1982) N6,O2'-dibutyryl cycle AMP and glucose regulate the amount of messenger RNA coding for hepatic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (GTP)J.Biol.Chem. 257: 2022-2028. Link to article
Granner, D., T. Andreone, K. Sasaki, and E. Beale, (1983) Inhibition of Transcription of the Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase Gene by InsulinNature 305: 549-551. Link to abstract
Beale, E.G., N.B. Chrapkiewicz, H.A. Scoble, R.J. Metz, D.P. Quick, R.L. Noble, J.E. Donelson, K. Biemann, and D.K. Granner, (1985) Rat hepatic cytosolic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (GTP). Structures of the protein, messenger RNA, and geneJ.Biol.Chem. 260: 10748-10760. Link to article
Short, M.K., D.E. Clouthier, I.M. Schaefer, R.E. Hammer, M.A. Magnuson, and E.G. Beale, (1992) Tissue-specific, developmental, hormonal, and dietary regulation of rat phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase-human growth hormone fusion genes in transgenic miceMol. Cell. Biol. 12: 1007-1020. Link to article
Tontonoz, P., E. Hu, J. Devine, E.G. Beale, and B.M. Spiegelman, (1995) PPARγ2 regulates adipose expression of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase geneMol. Cell. Biol. 15: 351-7. Link to article
Devine, J.H., D.W. Eubank, D.E. Clouthier, P. Tontonoz, B.M. Spiegelman, R.E. Hammer, and E.G. Beale, (1999) Adipose expression of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase promoter requires peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ and 9-cis-retinoic acid receptor binding to an adipocyte-specific enhancer in vivo. J. Biol. Chem. 274: 13604-12. Link to article
Eubank, D.W., E. Duplus, S.C. Williams, C. Forest, and E.G. Beale, (2001) Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factor II (COUP-TFII) negatively regulate the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase promoter via a common elementJ. Biol. Chem. 276: 30561-69. Link to article
Beale, E.G., R.E. Hammer, B. Antoine, and C. Forest, (2002) Glyceroneogenesis comes of ageFASEB J. 16: 1695-1696. Link to article
Tordjman, J., G. Chauvet, J. Quette, E.G. Beale, C. Forest, and B. Antoine, (2003) Thiazolidinediones block fatty acid release by inducing glyceroneogenesis in fat cellsJ. Biol. Chem. 278: 18785-18790. Link to article
Beale, E.G., R.E. Hammer, B. Antoine, and C. Forest, (2004) Disregulated glyceroneogenesis: PCK1 as a candidate diabetes and obesity geneTrends Endocrinol. Metab. 15: 129-135. Link to abstract
Beale, E., G. Li, M.W. Tan, and K.P. Rumbaugh, (2006) Caenorhabditis elegans senses bacterial autoinducersApplied and Environmental Microbiology 72: 5135-7. Link to abstract
Beale, E.G., B.J. Harvey, and C. Forest, (2006) PCK1 and PCK2 as candidate diabetes and obesity genesCell Biochem Biophys In press.