Draft:Deborah Bell-Pedersen

Bell-Pedersen received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from SUNY Albany in 1983. She then went on to earn her Master of Science in Molecular Biology from SUNY Albany in 1987, followed by a PhD in Molecular Biology from the same institution in 1991. From 1984 to 1991, during her time as a graduate student and PhD candidate, she worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the New York State Health Department. After completing her doctoral studies, she became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School, where she conducted research with Jay Dunlap and Jennifer Loros from 1991 to 1997.

In 1997, Bell-Pedersen joined Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor of Biology, until she became an associate professor of Biology in 2003, and was promoted to full professor in 2007. In 2023 Bell-Pedersen was named a Distinguished Professor, and she continues to hold the title of Thomas Distinguished Professor of Biology in the College of Arts & Sciences at Texas A&M University.{{Cite web |title=Deborah Bell-Pedersen's Profile {{!}} Texas A&M Experts |url=https://experts.tamu.edu/expert/deborah-bell-pedersen/ |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=experts.tamu.edu}} In her many years at the university she has taught courses ranging from microbiology and Special Topics in Signaling, to The Biology of Viruses, Microbial Development, and Seminars in Circadian Clocks. She also redesigned the Biological Clocks course and developed an advanced lab course, Fungal Functional Genomics Research Lab alongside Matthew Sachs.

Throughout her career, Bell-Pedersen has held numerous leadership positions. Since 2003, she has been actively involved in the Center for Research on Biological Clocks{{Cite web |title=CBCR Spotlight: Deborah Bell Pedersen |url=https://clocks.tamu.edu/cbcr-spotlight-deborah-bell-pedersen/ |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=TAMU Center for Biological Clocks |language=en-US}} at Texas A&M University, where she serves as Director. From 2008 to 2009, she also held the position of Vice Chair and Chair of the Council of Principal Investigators at TAMU.

Bell-Pedersen has been significantly involved in the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR) and the Fungal Genetics Society, working to increase diversity in the field by highlighting diverse speakers. As the program director for the 2012 SRBR biannual meeting, and as co-chair of the 2017 biannual Fungal Genetics Meeting, she advocated for greater representation of women and minority speakers. During her time on the SRBR board, Bell-Pedersen also introduced an awards program designed to recognize the achievements of junior faculty and established workshops and networking events for students and postdocs. She served as the elected board member and chair of the Fungal Genetics Policy Committee until 2023.

From 2014 to 2015, Bell-Pedersen was selected as an ADVANCE Administrative Fellow, a prestigious program designed to help women in STEM fields excel in administrative roles. Her leadership extended to her role as Associate Department Head of Operations for the Biology Department at TAMU from 2014 to 2021. In this position, she developed and managed a faculty mentoring program to support junior and mid-career faculty, chaired Tenure and Promotion as well as Annual Review Committees, and initiated a Microbiology Masters Program that created opportunities for internships in Biotechnology and helped students prepare for medical and professional schools. Additionally, she co-chaired the Biology Strategic Planning Committee, leading to the development of a bold 10-year hiring plan and the approval of a new Biology Building by senior administration.

From 2015 to 2018, Bell-Pedersen served as an executive member of the Interdisciplinary Program in Genetics and Genomics at TAMU. Later, from 2021 to 2022, she took on the role of Associate Department Head for Research, where she focused on implementing the Biology Strategic Plan and exploring new resources to enhance the department's research infrastructure.

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR)
• Genetics Society of America (GSA)
• American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
• Center for Biological Clocks Research

Bell-Pedersen's interest in circadian clocks first began during her work in Jay Dunlap and Jennifer Loros' labs at Dartmouth Medical School. As a PhD student, one of the faculty in her department sparked her interest in biological clocks while talking about his work studying Aplysia, a small marine organism. Intrigued by his topic, Bell-Pedersen discovered there was much to be learned in the field. She concluded that a career researching biological clocks could be both fulfilling and impactful. Her postdoctoral studies focused on the circadian clock in the model organism, Neurospora crassa to study rhythmic outputs in the fungus.

Bell-Pedersen’s role model and PhD advisor Marlene Belfort had a large impact on her, being a highly successful female scientist who managed to balance her career and family. She was inspired by her ability to find time to meet with students to discuss results and plan new experiments, regardless of her busy schedule. Bell-Pedersen aims to continue to give her students the same freedom to experiment on their own, as she saw first hand how her mentor helped to support her personal development into an independent scientist.

Bell-Pedersen is the principal investigator of the Bell-Pedersen Lab, housed in the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University. The lab conducts research on the core mechanisms of rhythmic gene expression control in circadian clocks by utilizing Neurospora crassa, a single-celled model organism. While the research conducted by the Bell-Pedersen Lab studies circadian control on the level of transcription and translation, their research has possible applications to common human diseases, such as metabolic syndrome or glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

• Mechanisms of Circadian Clock Control of mRNA Translation
• NIH MIRA Grant (2018–present)
• WoodNext Foundation Funding (2022-2024){{Cite web |last= |date=2024-12-03 |title=Three Biology Faculty funded by WoodNext Foundation |url=https://www.bio.tamu.edu/three-biology-faculty-funded-by-woodnext-foundation/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Texas A&M Biology |language=en-US}}
• Project: Circadian clock-based treatments for jet lab and aging

The Bell-Pedersen Lab has contributed to research on how the circadian clock controls translation, a field that has not been studied extensively compared to studies on the relationship between the circadian clock and transcription. Broadly, they have found that the circadian clock regulates translation of mRNA, and they have specifically found that the clock regulates the activity of eukaryotic elongation factor-2 (eEF2) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2a (elF2a). The Bell-Pedersen Lab has found that eEF2 activity, and in turn translation elongation rates, is regulated by its phosphorylation that is controlled by the clock.{{Cite journal |last1=Caster |first1=Stephen Z. |last2=Castillo |first2=Kathrina |last3=Sachs |first3=Matthew S. |last4=Bell-Pedersen |first4=Deborah |date=2016-08-23 |title=Circadian clock regulation of mRNA translation through eukaryotic elongation factor eEF-2 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=113 |issue=34 |pages=9605–9610 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1525268113 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=5003280 |pmid=27506798|bibcode=2016PNAS..113.9605C }} It has also been known that the clock regulates the activity of elF2a in Neurospora crassa through phosphorylation by kinase CPC-3 during the day, and the Bell-Pedersen Lab found that PPP-1 phosphatase is also required to dephosphorylate elF2a at night to maintain its rhythms.{{Cite journal |last1=Ding |first1=Zhaolan |last2=Lamb |first2=Teresa M. |last3=Boukhris |first3=Ahmad |last4=Porter |first4=Rachel |last5=Bell-Pedersen |first5=Deborah |date=2021-05-18 |title=Circadian Clock Control of Translation Initiation Factor eIF2α Activity Requires eIF2γ-Dependent Recruitment of Rhythmic PPP-1 Phosphatase in Neurospora crassa |journal=mBio |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=10.1128/mbio.00871–21 |doi=10.1128/mbio.00871-21 |pmc=8262944 |pmid=34006661}}

Building on their previous discoveries related to clock control of translation, the Bell-Pedersen Lab is investigating the role of clock control of tRNA synthetase levels on the clock control of translation fidelity.{{Cite journal |last1=Castillo |first1=Kathrina D. |last2=Chapa |first2=Emily D. |last3=Bell-Pedersen |first3=Deborah |date=2022-12-22 |title=Circadian clock control of tRNA synthetases in Neurospora crassa |journal=F1000Research |language=en |volume=11 |pages=1556 |doi=10.12688/f1000research.125351.1 |doi-access=free |issn=2046-1402 |pmc=10576190 |pmid=37841830}} This research is being conducted in collaboration with Mathew Sachs, another scientist at Texas A&M University.{{Cite web |title=Research {{!}} Deborah Bell-Pedersen Lab |url=https://www.bellpedersenlab.com/research |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=Deborah Bell-Pederse |language=en}}

Early research from the Bell-Pedersen Lab provided foundational evidence that ribosomes within a cell may not function uniformly. They found that 75% of the ribosomal protein genes in N. crassa exhibited rhythmic mRNA accumulation, peaking at different times of the day. This suggested that some ribosomes change composition over the course of the day, potentially explaining observed rhythms in protein synthesis. Following data collected by the Bell-Pedersen Lab indicated that the composition of some ribosomes within a cell might change temporally, challenging the previous notion that all ribosomes within a cell function identically. Results also demonstrated potential rhythms of r-protein abundance in wild type cells, but not in those with mutated clock genes. Research on this topic continues to focus on testing if clock regulation of ribosome composition affects which mRNA transcripts are rhythmically translated. 

The Bell-Pedersen lab is investigating compounds that rapidly reset the phase shift of the circadian clock, a necessary process for adjusting to jet lag. Additionally, the lab has identified compounds that increase the amplitude of circadian rhythms, which might offer therapeutic value for aging. The lab is looking at the mechanism of action for these compounds.

Bell-Pedersen has made notable contributions to the understanding of Neurospora rhythms, mainly in the areas of circadian output and control of protein translation. As a postdoctoral researcher, she was among the first to describe clock-controlled genes (ccgs) and to uncover the mechanisms behind their regulation. In her own lab, she continued to investigate circadian output and later expanded her research to explore how the circadian clock regulates translation of proteins. Bell-Pedersen was a part of the team to annotate the roughly 10,000 protein-coding genome sequence of the organism Neurospora crassa, that was completed at the Broad Institute.{{Cite journal |last1=Galagan |first1=James E. |last2=Calvo |first2=Sarah E. |last3=Borkovich |first3=Katherine A. |last4=Selker |first4=Eric U. |last5=Read |first5=Nick D. |last6=Jaffe |first6=David |last7=FitzHugh |first7=William |last8=Ma |first8=Li-Jun |last9=Smirnov |first9=Serge |last10=Purcell |first10=Seth |last11=Rehman |first11=Bushra |last12=Elkins |first12=Timothy |last13=Engels |first13=Reinhard |last14=Wang |first14=Shunguang |last15=Nielsen |first15=Cydney B. |date=2003-04-24 |title=The genome sequence of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=422 |issue=6934 |pages=859–868 |doi=10.1038/nature01554 |pmid=12712197 |bibcode=2003Natur.422..859G |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free }} In her following work, she explored further applications of these findings to genetics and biology.{{Cite journal |last1=Borkovich |first1=Katherine A. |last2=Alex |first2=Lisa A. |last3=Yarden |first3=Oded |last4=Freitag |first4=Michael |last5=Turner |first5=Gloria E. |last6=Read |first6=Nick D. |last7=Seiler |first7=Stephan |last8=Bell-Pedersen |first8=Deborah |last9=Paietta |first9=John |last10=Plesofsky |first10=Nora |last11=Plamann |first11=Michael |last12=Goodrich-Tanrikulu |first12=Marta |last13=Schulte |first13=Ulrich |last14=Mannhaupt |first14=Gertrud |last15=Nargang |first15=Frank E. |date=2004-03-01 |title=Lessons from the Genome Sequence of Neurospora crassa: Tracing the Path from Genomic Blueprint to Multicellular Organism |journal=Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=1–108 |doi=10.1128/mmbr.68.1.1-108.2004 |pmc=362109 |pmid=15007097}} In 1996, Bell-Pedersen published a seminal paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which identified circadian clock-controlled genes specific to late night–early morning expression in Neurospora crassa.{{Cite web |title=‪The Neurospora circadian clock-controlled gene, ccg-2, is allelic to eas and encodes a fungal hydrophobin required for formation of the conidial rodlet layer.‬ |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=o_D6vI4AAAAJ&citation_for_view=o_D6vI4AAAAJ:hFOr9nPyWt4C |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=scholar.google.com}} This paper, cited nearly 200 times, mapped rhythmic gene expression patterns in Neurospora, and noted fundamental properties of these rhythms in her model: periodicity, temperature compensation, and entrainability.{{Cite journal |last1=Bell-Pedersen |first1=Deborah |last2=Shinohara |first2=Mari L. |last3=Loros |first3=Jennifer J. |last4=Dunlap |first4=Jay C. |date=1996-11-12 |title=Circadian clock-controlled genes isolated from Neurospora crassa are late night- to early morning-specific |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=93 |issue=23 |pages=13096–13101 |doi=10.1073/pnas.93.23.13096 |doi-access=free |pmc=24052 |pmid=8917550|bibcode=1996PNAS...9313096B }}{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Yi |last2=Bell-Pedersen |first2=Deborah |date=2006-08-01 |title=Circadian Rhythms in Neurospora crassa and Other Filamentous Fungi |journal=Eukaryotic Cell |volume=5 |issue=8 |pages=1184–1193 |doi=10.1128/ec.00133-06 |pmc=1539135 |pmid=16896204}} This work laid the foundation for her future circadian studies in fungi and similar organisms. One of her seminal works, the 2003 Nature paper titled "The genome sequence of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa," has been cited over 2,000 times. This study, again, provided a comprehensive analysis of the Neurospora genome, revealing insights into its genetic architecture. In 2005, she co-authored a widely influential review in Nature Reviews Genetics, Circadian rhythms from multiple oscillators: lessons from diverse organisms, cited over 1,800 times, which synthesized circadian rhythm mechanisms across species and emphasized the complexity of biological timekeeping systems.{{Cite journal |last1=Bell-Pedersen |first1=Deborah |last2=Cassone |first2=Vincent M. |last3=Earnest |first3=David J. |last4=Golden |first4=Susan S. |last5=Hardin |first5=Paul E. |last6=Thomas |first6=Terry L. |last7=Zoran |first7=Mark J. |date=2005-07-01 |title=Circadian rhythms from multiple oscillators: lessons from diverse organisms |journal=Nature Reviews Genetics |language=en |volume=6 |issue=7 |pages=544–556 |doi=10.1038/nrg1633 |issn=1471-0064 |pmc=2735866 |pmid=15951747}} Collectively, her work on Neurospora has shaped modern chronobiology and continues to influence both fundamental research and clinical strategies related to biological timing.

In collaboration with Dr. David Earnest and Gerard Toussaint from Texas A&M, the lab has also sought to use their understanding of circadian clocks to find chronotherapeutic strategies to treat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The lab’s research focuses on the p38 MAPK pathway, showing arrhythmic activity in glioblastoma cells, to see its role in cancer cell invasiveness. The team aims to understand how circadian regulation enhances therapeutic outcomes by testing time-of-day-specific effects of the p38 MAPK inhibitor VX-745.

The Bell-Pedersen Lab has made major contributions in promoting a longer healthy lifespan by identifying specific compounds that increase circadian amplitude (combating aging) and phase shift the circadian clock (treating jet lag). While Bell-Pedersen’s work focuses on the genetic and molecular mechanisms of circadian regulation, her lab is investigating how novel compounds may modulate circadian rhythms and promote healthy aging. This is a developing area of research, and the specific compounds and their mechanisms have not yet been published.

• JoAnn Treat Research Excellence Award (Texas A&M University Research Foundation, 2005)
• Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching Recipient (Texas A&M University: Association of Former Students, 2007)
• Eminent Scholar Award (Texas A&M University: Aggie Women Network, 2013)
• Elected Fellow (American Academy of Microbiology, 2014)
• ADVANCE Administrative Fellow (Texas A&M University: Dean of Faculties Office, 2014)
• Distinguished Achievement Award in Research Recipient (Texas A&M University: Association of Former Students, 2015)
• Honorary Professorship (Texas A&M University, 2019)
• Elected Fellow (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2021)

• Fungal Genetics Conference (Asilomar, CA, 2022)
• Photosensory Receptors and Signal Transduction Gordon Research Conference (2022)
• European Biological Rhythms Society Meeting, Presidential Symposia Speaker (Zurich, Switzerland, 2022)
• Texas Society for Circadian Biology and Medicine (Houston, TX, 2022)
• Neurospora Conference Speaker (2023)
• Center for Circadian Biology Symposium Speaker (UC San Diego, 2024)
• International Symposium on Fungal Stress Talk (Iguazu Falls, PR, Brazil, 2024)

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