About

Claire E. Brown, MD, is an infectious disease specialist affiliated with Santa Monica Nephrology and Infectious Diseases. Her areas of interest include general infectious diseases, multi-drug resistant organisms, bone and joint infections, and antibiotic stewardship. She completed her medical degree at SUNY Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine in 2003 and subsequently undertook her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, finishing in 2006 and 2007 respectively. She earned her board certification in Infectious Disease from the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2010. Dr. Brown completed her fellowship in Infectious Disease at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2011. Her professional practice is based at the Santa Monica location, where she provides care in nephrology, infectious diseases, and travel medicine. She is also affiliated with Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. Her research includes studies on influenza and antibiotic stewardship, with publications in infectious disease and healthcare epidemiology.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Medicine
• Biology
• Geography
• Paleontology
• Oceanography
• Environmental science
• Environmental chemistry
• Geology
• Dentistry
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Skeletal and Dental Development Preserve Evidence of Energetic Stress in the Moose of Isle Royale

  Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution · 2020 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Biology
  • Dentistry
  • Geography

  Food shortages can leave diagnostic, and in the case of the dentition, irreversible changes in mineralized tissue that persist into historical and fossil records. Consequently, developmental defects of tooth enamel might be used to track ungulate population irruptions or declines in resource availability but dental tissue’s capacity for preserving historical population density changes has yet to be investigated in wild populations. We test the ability of macroscopic enamel defects, mandible and metapodial lengths to track changes in the well-known insular moose population of Isle Royale National Park. Our study demonstrates that 1) a moose density threshold exists on the island above which there is a significant decrease in mandible and metatarsus length and a concomitant increase in enamel hypoplasias, 2) food limitation has a more pronounced effect on male than female skeletal and dental growth, and 3) combined data from tooth enamel hypoplasias and bone lengths reflect the relative density of this ungulate population, and should be broadly applicable to other ungulate osteological samples. Developmental defects in dental enamel were among the highest recorded in a wild population, and even during low-density intervals the population density of Isle Royale moose has been high enough to negatively impact skeletal and dental growth, indicating the comparatively poor health of this isolated century-old ecosystem.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Investigating Boron Isotopes for Identifying Nitrogen Sources Supplied by Submarine Groundwater Discharge to Coastal Waters

  Frontiers in Environmental Science · 2020 · 18 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Environmental chemistry
  • Oceanography

  Stable isotopes of oxygen, nitrogen and boron were used to identify the sources of NO3- in submarine groundwater discharge into a large estuary (Long Island Sound, NY). Potential contaminants such as manure, septic waste and fertilizer overlap in 15N and18O but have been shown to have distinctive 11B in non-coastal settings. Two sites on the north shore of Long Island (NY) were studied with different, up-gradient land use, representative of mixed medium-density residential housing and agriculture. These sites have overlapping 15N and18O measurements in nitrate. Boron isotopes and concentrations are measurably different between the two sites, with little overlap. There is little correlation between 11B and [B] or salinity, demonstrating that direct mixing relationships between the fresh groundwater and seawater are unlikely to account for the variability, although the groundwater mixtures appear to have a seawater origin. Well water and rain water samples show a range of 11B that can explain the high values of the submarine groundwater samples. Potential nitrate endmembers, including septic system samples, fertilizers and a manure sample were also analyzed for 11B to compare to two sites with fresh submarine groundwater discharge up to 75 cm d-1that delivers significant NO3- to this coastal area. Several interesting conclusions emerge from this survey. One is that seawater provides boron but not salinity to fresh groundwaters collected within the subterranean estuary. This is likely through sea spray and boric acid volatilization. Another is that the large range of 11B with no trend in [B] suggests multiple N (and B) sources, consistent with our working knowledge that submarine groundwater discharge brings diffuse, non-point sourced contaminants to Long Island Sound.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Skeletal and Dental Development Preserve Evidence of Energetic Stress in the Moose of Isle Royale

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2019-11-05 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Food shortages can leave diagnostic, and in the case of the dentition, irreversible changes in mineralized tissue that persist into historical and fossil records. Consequently, developmental defects of tooth enamel might be used to track ungulate population irruption but dental tissue’s capacity for preserving historical population density changes has yet to be investigated in wild populations. We test the ability of enamel defects, mandible and metapodial lengths to track changes in the well-known fluctuating moose population of Isle Royale National Park. Our study demonstrates that 1) a moose density threshold exists on the island above which there is a significant decrease in mandible and metatarsus length and a concomitant increase in enamel hypoplasias, 2) food limitation has a more pronounced effect on male than female skeletal growth, and 3) combined data from tooth enamel hypoplasias and bone lengths reflect the relative density of this ungulate population, and should be broadly applicable to other ungulate osteological samples. Developmental defects in dental enamel were among the highest recorded in a wild population, and even during low-density intervals the population density of Isle Royale moose has been high enough to negatively impact skeletal and dental growth, indicating the comparatively poor health of this century-old ecosystem

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Purging of Strongly Deleterious Mutations Explains Long-Term Persistence and Absence of Inbreeding Depression in Island Foxes

  Current Biology · 2018-10-25 · 244 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Table of results from morphological assessment of Urocyon skulls and skeletons

  Figshare · 2018-10-12

  dataset

  Catalog of skeletal pathologies observed in morphological assessment of island (<em>Urocyon littoralis</em>) and gray fox (<em>U. cinereoargenteus</em>) specimens from museum collections (LACNHM: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History; SBMNH: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; Dickey: Donald Ryder Dickey Bird and Mammal Collection at University of California, Los Angeles). Please cite: Robinson, J. A., Brown, C., Kim, B. Y., Lohmueller, K. E., &amp; Wayne, R. K. (2018). Purging of Strongly Deleterious Mutations Explains Long-Term Persistence and Absence of Inbreeding Depression in Island Foxes. <em>Current Biology</em>, <em>28</em>(21), 3487-3494.

  DOI

• Table of results from morphological assessment of Urocyon skulls and skeletons

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2018-10-12

  datasetOpen access

  Catalog of skeletal pathologies observed in morphological assessment of island (<em>Urocyon littoralis</em>) and gray fox (<em>U. cinereoargenteus</em>) specimens from museum collections (LACNHM: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History; SBMNH: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; Dickey: Donald Ryder Dickey Bird and Mammal Collection at University of California, Los Angeles). Please cite: Robinson, J. A., Brown, C., Kim, B. Y., Lohmueller, K. E., &amp; Wayne, R. K. (2018). Purging of Strongly Deleterious Mutations Explains Long-Term Persistence and Absence of Inbreeding Depression in Island Foxes. <em>Current Biology</em>, <em>28</em>(21), 3487-3494.

  PublisherDOI

• AN ACTUALISTIC EXPERIMENT TO DETERMINE SKELETONIZATION AND DISARTICULATION IN THE LA BREA TAR SEEPS

  Palaios · 2017-03-01 · 12 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract: The famous Rancho La Brea tar seeps of Southern California trapped thousands of Pleistocene and early Holocene vertebrates, preserving them as jumbled columns of millions of disarticulated bones. Previous work has contributed to a hypothetical entrapment scenario, however, it lacks detail in the period between the time the animals perished and the permeation of their bones with tar. Additionally, previous work has shown that skeletal elements moved apart from each other at least 1–3 meters but it is unclear whether this movement occurred near the surface of the tar, soon after submersion, or later after burial by sediment and compaction. To help answer these questions of disarticulation and transport, we conducted an actualistic experiment to record the progress of microbial succession and skeletonization of specimens in tar. We submerged dismembered bobcat (Lynx rufus) carcasses in an undisturbed tar seep and recorded the progress of microbial faunal changes and tissue decay. Microbial communit...

  PublisherDOI

• Skeletal trauma reflects hunting behaviour in extinct sabre-tooth cats and dire wolves

  Nature Ecology & Evolution · 2017-04-10 · 45 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• PRIMARY HUMAN RENAL PROXIMAL TUBULE CELL MODEL FOR STUDY OF TRANSEPITHELIAL TRANSPORT

  Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (USMAI Consortium) · 2012-05-01

  otherOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Renal elimination is a major clearance route for many drugs and their metabolites. This takes place primarily in the proximal tubule (PT) cells and is mediated by uptake and efflux transporters. Primary cells cultured on transwells have been shown to be an effective in vitro model and may represent a more physiologically relevant system versus renal slices, isolated tubule fragments, or animal-derived cells lines that have been used in the past (Brown et al. 2008). To that end, freshly isolated primary kidney cells were plated onto semipermeable membrane filters and assessed for monolayer integrity and transporter functionality. A gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) assay, transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) measurements, and mannitol permeability verified monolayer integrity. The prototypical substrate para-aminohippuric acid (PAH) was used to evaluate OAT1/3 to MRP2/4 pathway. The substrates 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) and creatinine were used to evaluate expression of the OCT2 to MATE1/2 pathway. A flux ratio of secretory to absorptive (B---A/A---B) was seen in every isolation. Shipment of these transwell cultures showed re-establishment of transporter functionality as measured by MPP+ movement and TEERs. Thus, a PT cell model has been shown to retain appropriate transporter expression after shipment.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Chemical and Isotopic Variability of Spring Discharge: Implications for Groundwater Flow Pathways and Residence Times in the R-aquifer, Grand Canyon, Arizona

  AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts · 2008-12-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Kirk E. Lohmueller

  3 shared

• Bernard Kim

  Stanford University

  3 shared

• Jacqueline A. Robinson

  University of California, San Francisco

  3 shared

• Robert K. Wayne

  University of California, Los Angeles

  3 shared

• Malcolm S. Gordon

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2 shared

• Joseph Tamborski

  Old Dominion University

  2 shared

• William J. Ripple

  Oregon State University

  2 shared

• Blaire Van Valkenburgh

  2 shared

Education

• Ph. D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

  UCLA Life Sciences

  2017

• B.S. Biology

  University of Notre Dame

  2010