Joan D. Beckman

Year Entered: 2004

Degrees Received:
B.S., Zoology and Biotechnology, North Dakota State University, 2004

Honors and Awards:
National Institute on Aging National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral MD/PhD Fellows, 2007-2011
2008 Central Society for Clinical Research Trainee Travel Award
2008 Midwestern Section American Federation for Medical Research Junior Scholar Award
2008 American Physician Scientists Association (APSA)/American Society for Clinical Investigation/Association of American Physicians (ASCI/AAP) Best Poster Award

Thesis Advisor: Greg Vercellotti, M.D., MICaB Graduate Program

Thesis Research: 

Joan is currently working toward towards her Ph.D. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology.  Joan’s research interest is in vascular inflammation and blood vessel stasis that occurs in patients with sickle cell disease and transgenic sickle mice. Her current research with Dr. Greg Vercellotti and Dr. Cliff Steer utilizes gene therapy to increase our knowledge about how the sickle patient defend or adapt to excessive oxidative stress resulting from red blood cell hemolysis and the release of Hb, heme and iron into the vasculature.  Patients with sickle cell disease exhibit significantly elevated oxidative stress and inflammation and elevated cytoprotective genes, including heme oxygenase and ferritin. Joan’s research involves one of these cytoprotective genes, heme oxygenase (HO), which has three isoforms including HO-1. HO-1 is the rate-limiting enzyme in the catabolism of the heme.  The Vercellotti group has proposed that upregulation of HO-1 maintains vascular integrity and minimizes vascular injury in SCD and that the lack of this adaptation would increase the vaso-occlusion in sickle pathogenesis.  Therefore using Sleeping Beauty transposon (SB-Tn), levels of HO-1 gene expression will be modulated in transgenic sickle mice to test the hypothesis that further induction of HO-1 activity, or administration of its enzymatic products in SCD, will be beneficial in preventing vaso-occlusion. 

Joan’s main residency interest is hematology/oncology.  Joan grew up and attended high school in Jamestown, North Dakota.  Joan is currently a member of the Health Sciences Orchestra. During her free time she enjoys reading, following baseball, watching movies, travel, and swimming.

Publications:

Reynolds LP, Beckman JD, Kirsch JD, Kraft KC, Redmer, DA. Expression of Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (bFGF) in ovine uterine and placental tissues of late pregnancy. Biology of Reproduction 1999, 60 (supp. 1).

Beckman JD,Reynolds LP, Redmer DA, Kirsch JD, Petry KD, Kraft KC, Redmer CB, Grazul-Bilska AT. Isolation and Characterization of Ovine Luteal Pericytes and Endothelial Cells and the Study of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Nitric Oxide (NO) Interactions. Biology of Reproduction 2003, 68 (supp. 1): 137.

Beckman JD, Reynolds LP, Grazul-Bilska AT, Kirsch JD, Kraft KC, Johnson ML, Redmer DA.  2004.  Expression of angiogenic factors in ovine luteal pericytes exposed to nitric oxide.  Biol. Reprod. 70 (Suppl. 1).

Obrtlikova P, Ross JJ, Luttun A, Beckman JD, Keirstead SA, Kaufman DS. Transition of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Endothelial Cells to Smooth Muscle Cells in Culture as a Model for Vascular Development. Blood 2005;106 (11).

Presentations and Posters:

2003 36^th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Cincinnati, OH
2004 North Dakota State University Commencement Speaker
2004 37^th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Beckman JD, Nguyen J, Bruzzone C, Vineyard J,, Belcher J, Steer C, Vercellotti G. Induction of heme-oxygenase-1 and ferritin in the presence of excess free heme alleviates oxidative stress. 2007 Alfred Michael Research Day, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN.

Beckman JD, Nguyen J, Bruzzone C, Vineyard J, Belcher J, Steer C, Vercellotti G. Sickle cell disease and heme xxygenase-1: Potential for Sleeping Beauty transposon mediated gene therapy. 2007 University of Minnesota Medical School Department of Medicine Research Day, Minneapolis, MN.

Beckman JD, Vineyard JV, Yang C, Schmidt TE, Belcher JD, Vercellotti GM. Inhaled carbon monoxide: An anti-inflammatory modulator in transgenic sickle mice. ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts 11: # 2268.

Beckman JD, Vineyard JV, Schmidt TE, Belcher JD, Vercellotti GM. Inhaled carbon monoxide as a potential modulator of inflammation and oxidative stress in sickle cell disease. 2008 Alfred Michael Research Day, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN.

Beckman JD, Vineyard JV, Yang C, Schmidt TE, Belcher JD, Vercellotti GM. Inflammation and cxidative dtress in transgenicsickle mice: Inhaled carbon monoxide as a potential anti-inflammatory agent. 2008 Central Society for Clinical Research/ American Federation for Medical Research (CSCR/AFMR) Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Beckman JD, Vineyard  JV, Schmidt TE, Belcher JD, Vercellotti GM. Inhaled carbon monoxide as a potential modulator of inflammation and oxidative stress in sickle cell disease. 2008 American Society for Clinical Investigation/Association of American Physicians (ASCI/AAP) Meeting, Chicago, IL.