Faculty Detail   
Name ELIZABETH A. BEIERLE CHEN
  
Campus Address ACC 300 Zip 0000
Phone  (205) 638-9688
E-mail  ebchen@uab.edu
Other websites
    

 Education

Undergraduate  University of North Dakota    1984  Bachelor of Science 
Medical School  University of North Dakota    1989  M.D. 
Fellowship  Universtiy of Florida    1993  M.D. 
Residency  University of Florida    1996  M.D. 
Fellowship  St. Christopher's Hospital for Children     1998  M.D. 

 Certifications

American Board of Surgery  2006 
American Board of Surgery Pediatric Surgery  2007 

Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Surgery - Pediatric  Surgery - Pediatric Professor
Secondary  Ped - General Pediatrics  Ped - General Pediatrics Associate Professor
Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Cell, Molecular, & Developmental Biology 

Biographical Sketch 
Dr. Elizabeth A. Beierle, MD is currently a Professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery, UAB Department of Surgery. She joined the faculty in 2009, and is an integral member of this Division which performs over 3400 operative procedures annually. Her clinical focus is on cancer surgery for infants and children and on complex neonatal anomalies. She is a member of the Children’s Hospital Tumor Board and is the institutional surgical representative for the Children’s Oncology group, which is a national cooperative study group for children with cancer. She also has a strong interest in hepatobiliary disorders and organizes a multidisciplinary clinic with the hepatologists and transplant surgeons.
Dr. Beierle’s principal interest is research. She currently functions as Principal Investigator of her UAB 30 grant funded by the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, and has been involved in numerous other grants. Her current research is focused on the evaluation of the pathways associated with the non-receptor tyrosine kinase FAK and regulation of this kinase in pediatric solid tumors. She has 80 peer-reviews manuscripts, as well as four book chapters and 24 abstracts in publication. Dr. Beierle also serves as an editorial reviewer and presents frequently on a national level.
She is a regular lecturer to third-year medical students on fluids and electrolytes. She developed and taught a resident elective concerning pediatric burn care and patient advocacy. Also through her role as a provider and instructor in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), she has been regularly involved in teaching basic burn care to nurses, paramedics, and emergency responders in the community.

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer  Representative    
American Pediatric Surgery Association  Committee Member   
Association for Academic Surgery  Committee Member   
Children's Cancer Group     
Children's Oncology Group  Steering Committee   
 

Research/Clinical Interest
Title
(1) Signal transduction pathways in pediatric solid tumors (2) oHSV treatment of pediatric solid tumors
Description
(1) The primary goal of our project is to define the role of focal adhesion kinase in the tumorigenicity of pediatric solid tumors. (2) The other primary aim of our laboratory is to investigate novel therapeutics for pediatric solid tumors including oHSV.

Selected Publications 
Gillory LA, Megison ML, Stewart JE, Mroczek-Musulman E, Nabers HC, Waters AM,Kelly V, Coleman JM, Markert JM, Gillespie GY, Friedman GK, Beierle EA.Preclinical evaluation of engineered oncolytic herpes simplex virus for the
treatment of neuroblastoma. PLoS One. 2013 Oct 10;8(10):e77753. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0077753. eCollection 2013.  		 PMID: 24130898 
Lacher M, Yannam GR, Muensterer OJ, Aprahamian CJ, Haricharan RN, Perger L, Bartle D, Talathi SS, Beierle EA, Anderson SA, Chen MK, Harmon CM. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy for biliary dyskinesia in children: frequency increasing. J Pediatr Surg. 2013 Aug;48(8):1716-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2012.08.036.  PMID: 23932611 
Levy AS, Pyke-Grimm KA, Lee DA, Palla SL, Naranjo A, Saulnier Sholler G,Gratias E, Maloney K, Parshankar F, Lee-Scott M, Beierle EA, Gow K, Kim GE,Hunger S, Smith FO, Horton TM. Mentoring in pediatric oncology: a report from the Children's Oncology Group Young Investigator Committee. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2013 Aug;35(6):45661.doi:10.1097/MPH.0b013e31829eec33.   PMID: 23892351 
Stewart JE, Ma X, Megison M, Nabers H, Cance WG, Kurenova EV, Beierle EA.Inhibition of FAK and VEGFR-3 binding decreases tumorigenicity in neuroblastoma. Mol Carcinog. 2013 Jul 19. doi: 10.1002/mc.22070. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed  PMID: 23868727 
Waters AM, Beierle EA. The interaction between FAK, MYCN, p53 and Mdm2 in neuroblastoma. Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2014 Jan;14(1):46-51. Review.  PMID: 24041229 
 

Keywords
neuroblastoma, hepatoblastoma, FAK, p53, MYCN, MDM2, oHSV, retinoids, malignant rhabdoid kidney tumor