Beth Stevens facts for kids

Beth Stevens is a leading scientist who studies the brain. She was born in 1970. She works as a professor at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Stevens has made important discoveries about how our brains develop and stay healthy.

Her research focuses on tiny brain cells called microglia. These cells act like the brain's clean-up crew. She found that microglia, along with special proteins called complement proteins, help "prune" or remove connections between brain cells. This process is called synaptic pruning and is very important for a healthy brain. Dr. Stevens also discovered that if microglia don't work properly, it might lead to brain conditions like autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's.

In 2012, Dr. Stevens's team showed that microglia actually "eat" weak or unused connections between brain cells, called synapses. This was a big discovery! It showed that the brain's immune cells (microglia) play a key role in shaping how our brains are wired. This helps explain how the brain gets rid of extra connections as we grow.

Early Life and Education

Beth Stevens grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts. Her parents were both involved in education. Her mother was an elementary school teacher, and her father was a school principal.

Dr. Stevens earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science in Biology, from Northeastern University in 1993. While studying there, she gained a lot of experience working full-time in medical labs. Later, she earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003. She then continued her research at Stanford University School of Medicine. There, she studied how other brain cells, called astrocytes, help form connections between neurons.

Understanding Brain Connections

Dr. Stevens is currently a research associate at Boston Children's Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School. She leads the Stevens Lab, where her team tries to understand how different brain cells talk to each other. They look at how these conversations help create, remove, and change connections between neurons, both when the brain is healthy and when it's affected by disease. Her work has greatly increased our understanding of microglia and their role in brain diseases.

The Role of Complement Proteins

In 2007, Dr. Stevens found that certain proteins, part of something called the classical complement pathway, are needed to remove brain connections. She has explored how these proteins might be involved in conditions like schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and glaucoma.

Microglia: The Brain's Clean-Up Crew

Dr. Stevens and her former colleague, Dorothy P. Schafer, showed that microglia help control how active neurons are. They do this by "eating" connections that have been tagged by complement proteins. Microglia are like the clean-up crew of the central nervous system. They constantly check their surroundings, remove waste, and interact with neurons. This helps with synaptic pruning during brain development and learning. They even suggested a new model for how brain connections work, adding microglia as important players.

Microglia and Brain Diseases

Dr. Stevens has found that microglia play a role in the loss of connections in various diseases. This includes infections like West Nile virus and diseases like Alzheimer's, where connection loss happens before neurons die. Microglia might contribute to disease by both eating brain connections and activating other harmful brain cells. Her research suggests that in neurodegenerative diseases, the brain's clean-up pathways, which are good during development, might become harmful in the adult brain. Dr. Stevens has also identified microglia as a factor in Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Stevens has received many awards for her important discoveries. Some of these include:

• John Merck Fund
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
• Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research
• Dana Foundation Award (Brain and Immunoimaging)
• Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award
• MacArthur Fellows Program

In 2012, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This award is given by the U.S. government to promising young scientists. In 2015, she gave one of four special lectures at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, a huge gathering of brain scientists. She shared this honor with three other top neuroscientists, including two Nobel Prize winners.

In 2018, Dr. Stevens was named an HHMI Investigator. This is a very prestigious title given to leading scientists.

Personal Life

Beth Stevens is married to Rob Graham.