Dr Kate Beecher Matthews
Research Fellow
UQ Centre for Clinical Research
+61 7 334 66120
Researcher biography
Dr. Kate Beecher Matthews is an Early Career Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the UQ Centre of Clinical Research. Her PhD research focused on the impact of long-term sucrose overconsumption on serotonin and dopamine, which are critical to the brain's reward system.
Following her PhD, Dr Matthews joined the Perinatal Research Centre as a postdoctoral fellow, where she investigated brain injury in fetally growth-restricted infants. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Molecular Breast Pathology Laboratory with Prof Sunil Lakhani, A/Prof Amy McCart Reed, A/Prof Peter Simpson, and Dr Vaibhavi Joshi.
In collaboration with A/Prof McCart Reed, Dr Matthews works on two major studies investigating (1) the genomic landscape of breast cancers before and after neoadjuvant therapy, and (2) circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) monitoring in invasive lobular carcinoma. She is particularly interested in integrating her neuroscience background with breast cancer research to better understand the interaction between the nervous system and breast cancer cells within the brain.
Book Chapters
Cooper, Ignatius Alvarez, Beecher, Kate, Bartlett, Selena E. and Belmer, Arnauld (2021). Role of the serotonin 2B receptor in the reinforcing effects of psychostimulants. 5-HT2B receptors: from molecular biology to clinical applications. (pp. 309-322) edited by Luc Maroteaux and Laurent Monassier. Cham, Switzerland: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-55920-5_18
Beecher, Kate, Belmer, Arnauld and Bartlett, Selena E. (2019). Anatomy of the serotonin transporter. Serotonin: the mediator that spans evolution. (pp. 121-133) edited by Paul M. Pilowsky. London, United Kingdom: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-800050-2.00006-1
Journal Articles
Beecher, Kate, Kulasegaran, Tivya, Lakhani, Sunil R. and McCart Reed, Amy E. (2025). Genomic predictive biomarkers in breast cancer: the haves and have nots. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 26 (15) 7300, 7300-15. doi: 10.3390/ijms26157300
Beecher, Kate, Cooper, Ignatius Alvarez, Wang, Joshua, Walters, Shaun B., Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Bartlett, Selena E. and Belmer, Arnauld (2025). Correction: Long-term overconsumption of sugar starting at adolescence produces persistent hyperactivity and neurocognitive deficits in adulthood. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 19, 1643834. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1643834
Wang, Joshua, Moody, Hayley, Beecher, Kate and Chehrehasa, Fatemeh (2025). Rediscovering a Forgotten Link: TSPO and RIM-BP1 in Appetite Regulation. Nutrition Reviews, 83 (5), 961-964. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuae127
Beecher, Kate and Wang, Joshua (2025). Peer reviewer fatigue, or peer reviewer refusal?. Accountability in Research-Ethics Integrity and Policy, 32 (5), 838-844. doi: 10.1080/08989621.2025.2463977
Wang, Joshua, Beecher, Kate and Chehrehasa, Fatemeh (2024). Virtual dissection table case studies for undergraduate neuroanatomy written assignments. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 22 (3), A256-A264. doi: 10.59390/jdog5046
Wang, Joshua, O'Reilly, Max, Cooper, Ignatius Alvarez, Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Moody, Hayley and Beecher, Kate (2024). Mapping GABAergic projections that mediate feeding. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 163 105743, 105743. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105743
Musco, Hannah, Beecher, Kate, Chand, Kirat K., Boyd, Roslyn N., Colditz, Paul B. and Wixey, Julie A. (2024). The search for blood biomarkers that indicate risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in fetal growth restriction. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 12 1396102, 1-7. doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1396102
Joshi, Vaibhavi, Beecher, Kate, Lim, Malcolm, Stacey, Andrew, Feng, Yufan, Jat, Parmjit S., Duijf, Pascal H. G., Simpson, Peter T., Lakhani, Sunil R. and McCart Reed, Amy E. (2024). B7-H3 expression in breast cancer and brain metastasis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25 (7) 3976, 1-17. doi: 10.3390/ijms25073976
Wang, Joshua, Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Moody, Hayley and Beecher, Kate (2024). Does neuroscience research change behaviour? A scoping review and case study in obesity neuroscience. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 159 105598, 105598. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105598
Musco, Hannah, Beecher, Kate, Chand, Kirat K, Colditz, Paul B. and Wixey, Julie A. (2023). Blood biomarkers in the fetally growth restricted and small for gestational age neonate: associations with brain injury. Developmental Neuroscience, 46 (2), 1-14. doi: 10.1159/000530492
Beecher, Kate and Wixey, Julie (2023). Could serotonin play a role in abnormal brain outcomes in fetal growth restriction?. Neural Regeneration Research, 18 (3), 543-544. doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.346481
Belmer, Arnauld, Depoortere, Ronan, Beecher, Kate, Newman-Tancredi, Adrian and Bartlett, Selena E. (2022). Neural serotonergic circuits for controlling long-term voluntary alcohol consumption in mice. Molecular Psychiatry, 27 (11), 4599-4610. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01789-z
Wang, Joshua, Beecher, Kate, Chehrehasa, Fatemeh and Moody, Hayley (2022). The limitations of investigating appetite through circuit manipulations: are we biting off more than we can chew?. Reviews in the Neurosciences, 295-311. doi: 10.1515/revneuro-2022-0072
Hakim, Marziah, Beecher, Kate, Jacques, Angela, Chaaya, Nicholas, Belmer, Arnauld, Battle, Andrew R., Johnson, Luke R., Bartlett, Selena E. and Chehrehasa, Fatemeh (2022). Retrieval of olfactory fear memory alters cell proliferation and expression of pCREB and pMAPK in the corticomedial amygdala and piriform cortex. Chemical Senses, 47 bjac021, 1-11. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjac021
Beecher, Kate, Wang, Joshua, Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Depoortere, Ronan, Varney, Mark A., Newman-Tancredi, Adrian, Bartlett, Selena E. and Belmer, Arnauld (2022). Dissecting the contribution of 5-HT1A auto- and heteroreceptors in sucrose overconsumption in mice. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy, 148 112699, 1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2022.112699
Patkar, Omkar L., Mohamed, Abdalla Z., Narayanan, Ashwin, Mardon, Karine, Cowin, Gary, Bhalla, Rajiv, Stimson, Damion H. R., Kassiou, Michael, Beecher, Kate, Belmer, Arnauld, Alvarez Cooper, Ignatius, Morgan, Michael, Hume, David A., Irvine, Katharine M., Bartlett, Selena E., Nasrallah, Fatima and Cumming, Paul (2021). A binge high sucrose diet provokes systemic and cerebral inflammation in rats without inducing obesity. Scientific Reports, 11 (1) 11252, 11252. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-90817-z
Wang, Joshua and Beecher, Kate (2021). TSPO: an emerging role in appetite for a therapeutically promising biomarker. Open Biology, 11 (8) 210173, 210173. doi: 10.1098/rsob.210173
Chaaya, Nicholas, Wang, Joshua, Jacques, Angela, Beecher, Kate, Chaaya, Michael, Battle, Andrew Raymond, Johnson, Luke R., Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Belmer, Arnauld and Bartlett, Selena E. (2021). Contextual fear memory maintenance changes expression of pMAPK, BDNF and IBA-1 in the pre-limbic cortex in a layer-specific manner. Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 15 660199, 1-14. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2021.660199
Beecher, Kate, Wang, Joshua, Jacques, Angela, Chaaya, Nicholas, Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Belmer, Arnauld and Bartlett, Selena E. (2021). Sucrose consumption alters serotonin/glutamate co-localisation within the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of mice. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 14 678267. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2021.678267
Beecher, Kate, Alvarez Cooper, Ignatius, Wang, Joshua, Walters, Shaun B., Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Bartlett, Selena E. and Belmer, Arnauld (2021). Long-term overconsumption of sugar starting at adolescence produces persistent hyperactivity and neurocognitive deficits in adulthood. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 15 670430, 1-15. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.670430
Alvarez Cooper, Ignatius, Beecher, Kate, Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Belmer, Arnauld and Bartlett, Selena E. (2020). Tumour necrosis factor in neuroplasticity, neurogenesis and alcohol use disorder. Brain Plasticity, 6 (1), 47-66. doi: 10.3233/bpl-190095
Patkar, Omkar L., Belmer, Arnauld, Beecher, Kate, Jacques, Angela and Bartlett, Selena E. (2019). Pindolol rescues anxiety-like behavior and neurogenic maladaptations of long-term binge alcohol intake in mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13 264. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00264
Jacques, Angela, Chaaya, Nicholas, Beecher, Kate, Ali, Syed Aoun, Belmer, Arnauld and Bartlett, Selena (2019). The impact of sugar consumption on stress driven, emotional and addictive behaviors. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 103, 178-199. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.05.021
Chaaya, Nicholas, Jacques, Angela, Belmer, Arnauld, Beecher, Kate, Ali, Syed A., Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Battle, Andrew R., Johnson, Luke R. and Bartlett, Selena E. (2019). Contextual fear conditioning alter microglia number and morphology in the rat dorsal hippocampus. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 13 214, 214. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2019.00214
Belmer, Arnauld, Beecher, Kate, Jacques, Angela, Patkar, Omkar L., Sicherre, Florian and Bartlett, Selena E. (2019). Axonal non-segregation of the vesicular glutamate transporter VGLUT3 within serotonergic projections in the mouse forebrain. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 13 193. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2019.00193
Jacques, Angela, Chaaya, Nicholas, Hettiarachchi, Chiemi, Carmody, Marie-Louise, Beecher, Kate, Belmer, Arnauld, Chehrehasa, Fatemeh, Bartlett, Selena, Battle, Andrew R. and Johnson, Luke R. (2019). Microtopography of fear memory consolidation and extinction retrieval within prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Psychopharmacology, 236 (1), 383-397. doi: 10.1007/s00213-018-5068-4
Beecher, Kate, Hafner, Louise M., Ekberg, Jenny, St John, James A. and Chehrehasa, Fatemeh (2018). Combined VEGF/PDGF improves olfactory regeneration after unilateral bulbectomy in mice. Neural Regeneration Research, 13 (10), 1820-1826. doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.238713
Beecher, Kate, St John, James and Chehrehasa, Fatemeh (2018). Factors that modulate olfactory dysfunction. Neural Regeneration Research, 13 (7), 1151-1155. doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.235018
Conference Paper
Chand, Kirat, Patel, Jatin, Matthews, Kate, Nano, Rachel, Musco, Hannah, Khosrotehrani, Kiarash, Colditz, Paul and Wixey, Julie (2023). Combined human endothelial colony-forming cells and mesenchymal stromal cells as a neuroprotectant in fetal growth-restricted newborns. IBRO 11th World Congress of Neuroscience, Granada, Spain, 9-13 September 2023. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.ibneur.2023.08.249
Theses
Matthews, Kate (2022). Effects of adolescent sucrose overconsumption on serotonin and dopamine signalling and associated maladaptive effects in adulthood. PhD Thesis, School of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology. doi: 10.5204/thesis.eprints.228732
Beecher, Kate (2018). Effect of intra-nasally administered VEGF/PDGF on neuronal regeneration within the mouse olfactory system. Master's Thesis, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology. doi: 10.5204/thesis.eprints.115832