Helen Beere

Helen M. Beere, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty

Departments

Immunology

Contact Information

Helen Beere, PhD
Immunology
MS 351, Room E7006
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
262 Danny Thomas Place
Memphis, TN 38105-3678
Email: helen.beere@stjude.org
Phone: (901) 595-4975
FAX: (901) 595-3107

Education

PhD - University of Manchester, United Kingdom (1991)

Research Interests

Our laboratory studies the role of the stress inducible heat shock protein pathway in:

  • Modulation of immune homeostasis
  • Regulation of apoptotic cell death
  • Oncogene-mediated tumor initiation and progression

Selected Publications

Colell A, Ricci JE, Bouchier-Hayes L, Tait S, Milasta S, Fitzgerald P, Guio-Carrion A, Waterhouse NJ, Li CW, Newmeyer DD, Beere HM, Green DR. Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase protects cells from apoptotic cytochrome c release in the absence of caspase activation Cell 129: 983-997, 2007.

Tu S, McStay GP, Boucher LM, Mak T, Beere HM, Green DR. In situ trapping of activated initiator caspases reveals a role for caspase-2 in heat shock-induced apoptosis. Nature Cell Biology 8: 72-77, 2006.

Pagliari LJ, Kuwana T, Bonzon C, Newmeyer DD, Tu S, Beere HM, Green DR.  The multidomain proapoptotic molecules Bax and Bak are directly activated by heat.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  USA 102: 17975-17980, 2005.

Beere HM. Death versus Survival: functional interaction between the apoptotic and stress inducible heat shock protein pathways. Journal of Clinical Investigation 115: 2633-2639, 2005.

Beere HM. ‘The stress of dying’: the role of heat shock proteins in the regulation of apoptosis. Journal of Cell Science 117: 2641-2651, 2004.

Beere HM. ‘Stressed to death': regulation of apoptotic signaling pathways by the heat shock proteins. Science STKE (93) RE1, 2001.

Beere HM. Apoptosis Hots up From The Cold. Trends in Biochemical Sciences 26: 278-280, 2001.

Green DR, Beere HM. Apoptosis—mostly dead. Nature 412: 133-5, 2001.

Beere HM, Green DR. Stress management - heat shock protein (hsp) 70 and the regulation of apoptosis. Trends in Cell Biology 11: 16-10, 2001.

Kasibhatla S, Beere HM, Brunner T, Echeverri F, Green DR. A “non-canonical” DNA binding element mediates the response of the Fas-ligand promoter to c-Myc. Current Biology 10: 1205-1208, 2000.

Beere HM, Wolf BB, Mosser DD, Cain K, Kuwana T, Morimoto RI, Cohen GM, Green DR. Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) inhibits apoptosis by preventing recruitment of procaspase-9 to the apaf-1 apoptosome. Nature Cell Biology 2: 469-475, 2000.

Green DR, Beere HM. Apoptosis—gone but not forgotten.Nature 405: 28-29, 2000.

Newmeyer DD, Bossy-Wetzel E, Kluck RM, Wolf BB, Beere HM, Green DR. Bcl-xL blocks cytochrome c release from mitochondria but does not inhibit the function of Apaf-1. Cell Death and Differentiation 7: 402-407, 2000.

Wolf BB, Goldstein JC, Stennicke HR, Beere HM, Amarante-Mendes GP, Salvesen GS, Green DR. Calpain functions in a caspase-independent manner to promote apoptosis-like events during platelet activation. Blood 94: 1683-1692, 1999.

Green DR, Beere HM. Killers or clean-up crew: How central are the central mechanisms of apoptosis? in Hickman JA, Dive C. Apoptosis and Cancer Therapy Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, 1999 pp 157-174.

Moore AJ, Butt AJ, Beere HM. Departing is such sweet sorrow. Cell Death and Differentiation 5: 330-336, 1998.

Beere HM, Chresta CM, Hickman JA. Investigation of a role for topoisomerase II in the release of DNA loop domains during apoptosis of human promyelocytic HL-60 leukemia cells. Molecular Pharmacology 49: 842-851, 1996.

Beere HM, Cowin AJ, Soden J, Bidey SP. Iodide-dependent regulation of thyroid follicular cell proliferation: a mediating role of autocrine insulin-like growth factor-1. Growth Regulation 5: 203-209, 1995.

Chapman RS, Alejo Herberg A, Chresta C, Beere HM, Heer S, Whetton AD, Hickman JA, Dive C. Flow cytometric analysis of apoptosis in drug-resistant and drug-sensitive leukemia cells: further characterization of the in situ terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) assay. Cytometry 20: 245-256, 1995.

Beere HM, Chresta CM, Alejo Herberg A, Skladanowsky A, Dive C, Kragh-Larsen A, Hickman JA. Investigation of the mechanism of higher order chromatin fragmentation observed in drug induced apoptosis. Molecular Pharmacology 47: 986-996, 1995.

Beere HM, Hickman JA, Morimoto RI, Parmar R, Newbould R, Waters CM. Changes in HSC70 and c-myc in HL-60 cells engaging in differentiation or apoptosis. Molecular and Cellular Differentiation 1: 323-343, 1993.

Beere HM, Morimoto RI, Hickman JA. Investigations of mechanisms of drug-induced changes in gene expression: N-methylformamide-induced changes in synthesis of the Mr 72000 constitutive heat shock protein during commitment of HL-60 cells to granulocyte differentiation.  Cancer Research 53: 3034-3309, 1993.

Beere HM, Hickman JA. Differentiation: a suitable strategy for cancer chemotherapy?  Anti-Cancer Drug Design 8: 299-322, 1993.

Hickman JA, Beere HM, Wood AC, Waters CM, Parmar R. Mechanisms of cytotoxicity caused by antitumour drugs. Toxicology Letters 64/65: 553-561, 1992.

Beere HM, Soden J, Tomlinson S, Bidey SP. Insulin like growth factor-2 production and action in porcine thyroid follicular cells in monolayer: regulation by transforming growth factor-beta. Journal of Endocrinology 130: 3-9, 1991.

Beere HM, Tomlinson S, Bidey SP. Iodide autoregulation of functional and morphological differentiation events in the FRTL-5 rat thyroid strain. Journal of Endocrinology 124: 19-25, 1990.

 

Last update: February 2008

 

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