|
As director of
the clinical pathology division of Evanston Northwestern
Dr. Kenneth Beaman received his Bachelors Degree in 1975 from
Colorado State University. He was a fellow in the Clinical
Microbiology Lab at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 1975 to
1978. He received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in
Microbiology and Immunology in 1982. He was a postdoctoral
fellow in the Department of Pathology at Yale from 1982 to 1985.
During his fellowship at Yale University he was a member of the
transplantation laboratory. His research interests are in
clinical immunology and in immune suppression, particularly
during pregnancy. In 1985, he joined the Department of
Microbiology and Immunology at the Chicago Medical School. He
founded the Clinical Immunology Laboratory at the Chicago
Medical School in 1987. The Clinical Immunology Laboratory
supports a variety of autoimmune/rheumatology testing but
primarily is interested in diagnostic tests pertaining to the
immunology of pregnancy. Dr. Beaman is a fellow of the American
Association of Medical Laboratory Immunologists and a Diplomat
of the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology. The
Clinical Immunology Laboratory is one of two laboratories in the
United States certified by the Committee on Postdoctoral
Educational Program (CPEP) approved postdoctoral training in
Clinical Immunology that is accredited by the American Society
of Microbiology. He is on the council of several national and
international societies of both Reproductive and Clinical
Immunology. Dr. Beaman is the Editor-in-Chief of the American
Journal of Reproductive Immunology.
Research
Dr. Beaman's research interests concern the control of the
immune response. In particular his current work involves cloning
of the genes responsible for suppression of the immune system.
These genes are responsible for the prevention of graft
rejection during transplantation and autoimmunity. Malfunctions
of this gene complex may also lead to tumor metastases and
infertility. Currently his major research effort is in two main
areas: (1) molecular characterizations of fetal specific immune
suppression during pregnancy (2) immunal detection and therapy
of ovarian cancer. Understanding the molecular mechanisms which
regulate the immune response is the key which links these two
primary research areas. Initial experiments have shown that the
gene(s) responsible for antigen specific suppression of the
response code for proteins which protect the fetus during
embryonic development and block immunal responses to tumors.
|