Dr. Rowan Beck

Education

Ph.D. in Genetics & Molecular Biology

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Chapel Hill, NC - 2015-2019
Doctoral Advisors: Praveen Sethupathy and Miroslav Styblo

B.S. in Biology

University of the District of Columbia - Washington, DC - 2011-2013 
Advisor: George Eng

Professional Experience

Community Engagement Manager

Seven Bridges / Velsera - Boston, MA - March 2022 - Current

• I create content to help researchers learn how to use Seven Bridges platforms including written tutorials and video tutorials.

• I plan and lead training sessions and workshops for students, researchers, and others.

• I engage with users and stakeholders, understand their research questions, and help them successfully carry out their study on the platform.

• I provide guidance with technical issues, bioinformatics, coding, biology, and more.

• I demonstrate the value of Seven Bridges platforms to the research community at conferences, workshops, and consortia meetings.    

Senior Scientist, Vapor Submissions / Vapor Stewardship

RJ Reynolds Tobacco - Winston-Salem, NC - June 2021 - March 2022

• Perform assessments of materials, ingredients, and manufacturing processes.

• Provide toxicological evaluations and offer guidance for each project to ensure compliance with federal regulations.

• Serve as a non-clinical point of contact and summarize in vitro and in vivo scientific data to demonstrate to the FDA that a product is appropriate for the protection of public health.

Senior Scientist, Product Stewardship   

RJ Reynolds Tobacco - Winston-Salem, NC -    Feb 2020 – June 2021

• Support new and current product development by assessing materials, ingredients, and manufacturing processes for consumer safety.

• Provide toxicological assessments and guidance for each project to ensure compliance with federal regulations

• Assist with the design, oversight and execution of clinical studies and FDA submissions of the resulting data

Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Intern      

RJ Reynolds Tobacco - Winston-Salem, NC -    Summer 2019

• Established a pipeline for QC, quantification, normalization, and visualization of RNA sequencing data

• Management, execution, analysis and delivery of a multi-institutional collaborative research project

• Presentation of data including interpretation and recommendations to the company leadership teams

Graduate Research Assistant                      

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Chapel Hill, NC - 2015-2019

• Established and maintained productive collaborations across institutions while leading research projects

• Identified 6 novel microRNAs as biomarkers of arsenic exposure in a human population

• Utilized in vitro and ex vivo cellular models to identify and characterize several exposure-responsive microRNAs implicated in the regulation of pancreatic beta cell function

• Managed 1 high school, 2 undergraduate, and 1 graduate student by developing training plans, communicating complex scientific data, teaching experimental assays, and data analysis

• Assisted with the text and figure preparation of 4 research and training grants

• Authored or served as co-author on 8 manuscripts

• Presented research at national and local toxicology conferences, including Society of Toxicology

• Served as the primary teaching assistant for two courses: Intro to Unix/Perl and Practical RNAseq

• Taught RNA isolation, processing sequencing data using Unix, and the analysis and visualization of processed data with R programming.

  • Graded scripts for efficiency and accuracy

Skills

Micro & Cellular Biology: in vitro and primary cell culture, various cytotoxicity assays, ELISA assays, protein analysis

Molecular Biology: RT-qPCR, (mi)RNA isolation and quality assessment, gel electrophoresis

Microscopy: dissection, fluorescence, bright field, confocal

Computational: R, Perl, Unix, LaTeX, Python (novice), Common Workflow Language (CWL), Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, DiseaseLand, Derek Nexus, Leadscope

Data Visualization: R Programming, Tableau, GraphPad Prism, Adobe Photoshop, Biorender

AWARDS AND HONORS

Dissertation Completion Fellowship; UNC, 2019

Graduate Student Travel Support Award; Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, 2018

1st Place, Metals Specialty Section; Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, 2017.

T32 Genetics Training Grant; National Institute of General Medical Sciences (5T32 GM007092), 2016

1st Place; UNC Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD) Research Symposium, 2016

PUBLICATIONS

THESIS 

Defining the Molecular Effects of Arsenic Exposure in Circulation and in Pancreatic Beta Cells

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Doctoral Dissertation 2020 

RESEARCH ARTICLES (11)

David Pot, Zelia Worman, Alexander Baumann, Shirish Pathak, Rowan Beck, Katherine Thayer, Tanja M. Davidsen, Erika Kim, Brandi Davis-Dusenbery, John Otridge, Todd Pihl, The CRDC Program, Jill S. Barnholtz-Sloan, Anthony R. Kerlavage. “NCI Cancer Research Data Commons: Cloud-based Analytical Resources” Cancer Research, 2024.

Trinh Nguyen, Xiaopeng Bian, David Roberson, Rakesh Khanna, Qingrong Chen, Chunhua Yan, Rowan Beck, Zelia Worman, Daoud Meerzaman “Multi-omics Pathways Workflow (MOPAW): An Automated Multi-omics Workflow on the Cancer Genomics Cloud” Cancer Informatics, 2023. 

JE Todero, K Koch-Laskowski,Q Shi, M Kanke, YH Hung, R. Beck “Candidate master microRNA regulator of arsenic-induced pancreatic beta cell impairment revealed by multi-omics analysis” Archives of Toxicology, 2022. 

YY Li, C Douillet, M Huang, R Beck, SJ Sumner, M Stýblo. “Exposure to inorganic arsenic and its methylated metabolites alters metabolomics profiles in INS-1 832/13 insulinoma cells and isolated pancreatic islets”. Archives of Toxicology, 2020. 

R Beck, M Chandi, M Kanke, M Stýblo, P Sethupathy. “Arsenic is more potent than cadmium or manganese in disrupting the INS-1 beta cell microRNA landscape”. Archives of Toxicology, 2019.

PA Bommarito, R Beck, C Douillet, LM Del Razo, GG Garcia-Vargas, O.L. Valenzuela, L.C. Sanchez-Peña, M Styblo, R.C. Fry. “Evaluation of plasma arsenicals as potential biomarkers of exposure to inorganic arsenic”. Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology, 2019.

M Huang, C Douillet, E.N. Dover, C Zhang, R Beck, A Tejan-Sie, S Krupenko, M Stýblo. “Metabolic Phenotype of Wild-Type and As3mt-Knockout C57BL/6J Mice Exposed to  Inorganic Arsenic: The Role of Dietary Fat and Folate Intake “. Environmental health perspectives, 2018. 

R Beck, P Bommarito, C Douillet, M Kanke, LM Del Razo, GG García-Vargas, RC Fry, P Sethupathy, M Styblo. “Circulating miRNAs as potential biomarkers of arsenic exposure “. Environmental Science & Technology, 2018.

Dover, E.N., Beck, R., et al.  “Arsenite and Methylarsonite Inhibit Mitochondrial Metabolism and Glucose Stimulated Insulin Secretion in INS-1 832/13 β-Cells”. Archives in Toxicology, 2017.

Rowan Far, Hirut Yimer, Jose Hernandez, James Ferguson, Adewola Osunsade, Jana Hoerner, Russell Knighton, Joni Robinson, Stephanie Graves, Xueqing Song, Robert Pike, George Eng, “Tolerance of Various Biological Species to Triorganotins” Main Group Chemistry. Vol 13 (2014), Pg. 261-270  

Tushar S. Baul, Archana Mizar, George Eng, Rowan Far, and Anthony Linden, "Synthesis and structural studies of dimethyltin(IV) 5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl)quinolin-8-olates" Journal of Coordination Chemistry .Vol. 66, Issue 5, Pg. 813-825 

REVIEW ARTICLES (1)

Rowan Beck, Miroslav Styblo, and Praveen Sethupathy “Arsenic exposure and type 2 diabetes: microRNAs as mechanistic links?”. Current Diabetes Reports, 2017.

BOOK CHAPTERS (In Review)