College loses beloved professor Craig Beeson

Craig Beeson, a beloved mentor and accomplished research scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy, passed away on November 28,2019.

Beeson was professor of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Science at MUSC and president and CEO of both MitoChem Therapeutics and MitoHealth.

After earning a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, Beeson did a postdoc in chemistry and immunology at the Stanford School of Medicine. He joined MUSC in 2002, rising to the rank of full professor and acting as director of the Metabolomics and MUSC/Seahorse Biosciences Development Core. In 2017, he was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors, reflecting his significant contributions to economic development, society, and quality of life.

The Seahorse Biosciences/MUSC Academic Development Core was the first academic core utilizing and extracellular flux analyzer (Seahorse), which Beeson and his wife Gyda helped to develop during the 17 years they worked closely together. It is a fully integrated instrument that simultaneously measures three major pathways –aerobic respiration, glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation, in a microplate format, enabling researchers to conduct high-throughput testing of biological samples including tissue slices, C-elegans and Zebra fish embryos.

In October 2010, Beeson founded MitoHealth, a biotech startup that provides contract services to assess the effect of compounds on mitochondrial health. The company has also identified novel compounds that induce mitochondrial biogenesis – a process that is often rate limiting in acute ischemic pathologies and degenerative diseases. In 2011, he co-founded MitoChem Therapeutics, which announced last year that it had developed a class of small molecules, mitoalexins, that protect mitochondria in tissues from the metabolic stress that causes many degenerative diseases. The primary indications are retinal degenerative diseases.

In addition, because of Beeson’s love for teaching and his skill as a mentor, he left behind a considerable legacy among MUSC graduate students.  In 2019, students of the College of Graduate studies voted him Teacher of the Year for the sixth time during his 17-year career at MUSC; the award is being renamed “The Craig Beeson Teacher of the Year Award” in his honor.

“Dr. Beeson made considerable contributions to developing the basic science that fights disease and there are many generations whose health and well-being will be dramatically better because of his work,” said Philip Hall, dean of the MUSC College of Pharmacy. “But I think we will miss most his warmth, his humor, and his ability to make each day a better day for having run into him.”

He is survived by his best friend and wife, Gyda , one brother and three sisters.