Craig C Beeson PhD - Co-Founder
(1958-2019)
Dr. Beeson was a member of a group of scientists specializing in the role of mitochondrial function in physiological homeostasis and disease. He obtained his Ph.D. in synthetic and physical organic chemistry from the University of California at Irvine. He continued his studies with postdoctoral research under the supervision of Harden McConnell Ph.D. and Mark Davis Ph.D. at Stanford University where he studied biophysics and immunology. He started his academic career at the University of Washington in Seattle in the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Immunology. He was recruited to the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2002. The focus of his lab was in the areas of structure-based drug design and the regulation of cellular energy metabolism. He was the director of the MUSC Bioenergetic Profiling Core. He was a founding member of the Seahorse Biosciences FX Technology Design Team. He co-founded MitoHealth LLC., which offers services to assess mitochondrial function. He then co-founded MitoChem Therapeutics Inc., to develop small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of retinal degenerative pathologies. His research has resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications funded by over 30 grants on which he was the PI or co-PI, with additional NRSA grants obtained by post-doctoral fellows in his laboratory. Professor Beeson received the MUSC Inventor of the Year award in 2016, and was elected to the rank of National Academy of Inventors fellow by a 2017 selection committee.