BIO

Dr. Beard defended his dissertation in July 2024 and earned his doctorate in Biology in August 2024. As a graduate of Baylor University, he currently works as a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Sayes group. His ultimate career goal is to serve as a faculty member at a higher education institution.

He was born and raised in Louisiana. He received a B.S. in Integrative Biology (2017) and an M.S. in Biology (2019) at the University of Lousiana at Lafayette, where he specialized in electrophysiology and biophysics. His current research is investigating the extent of biological harm caused by e-cigarettes in the pulmonary region, how to quantify said harm and disclose the results to the public, and how to optimize strategies & methods for the field of vape research.

PUBLICATIONS

1. Beard JM, Collom C, Liu JY, Obiako P, Strongin RM, Zavala J, Sayes CM. In vitro toxicity and chemical analysis of e-cigarette aerosol produced amid dry hitting. Toxicology. 2024 Jun 13:153865.

2. Liu J, Beard J, Hussain S, Sayes CM. Advancing Analytical and Graphical Methods for Binary and Ternary Mixtures: The Toxic Interactions of Divalent Metal Ions in Human Lung Cells. Available at SSRN 4824981.

3. Beard J, Shockett P, and O'Reilly J. (2020). Substituted cysteine scanning in D1-S6 of the sodium channel hNav1.4 alters kinetics and structural interactions of slow inactivation. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes, 1862(2), 183129.
   
   

PRESENTATIONS

American Chemical Society. "Effect of e-cigarette flavoring molecule ethyl maltol against lung cells." Poster. Chicago, IL (Aug 2022).

American Chemical Society Southwest Regional Meeting. "Effect of flavoring molecules in e-cigarette liquids on A549 Lung cells." Poster. Baton Rouge, LA (Nov 2022).

Lone Star Regional Chapter of the Society of Toxicology. "Effect of flavoring molecules in e-cigarette liquids on A549 Lung cells." Poster. Houston, TX (Nov 2022).

63rd Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society. "Using SCAM to investigate reconfiguration of molecular determinants in D1-S6 during slow inactivation of hNav1.4." Poster. Baltimore, MD (Mar 2019).

ULL's 18th Annual Graduate Student Symposium. "Investigating the slow inactivation of sodium channels." Oral. Lafayette, LA (Oct 2018).

ULL's 18th Annual Graduate Student Symposium. "Using SCAM to investigate reconfiguration of molecular determinants in D1-S6 during slow inactivation of hHav1.4." Poster. Lafayette, LA (Oct 2018).