Staci Bilbo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Staci Bilbo
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | B.A. University of Texas at Austin, M.A. and Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, Postdoctoral work University of Colorado |
| Known for | Neonatal infection primes microglia |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroimmunology |
| Institutions | Duke University |
Staci Bilbo is an American scientist who studies how the brain and the immune system work together. This field is called neuroimmunology. She is a professor at Duke University. Dr. Bilbo also helps with research at Massachusetts General Hospital. There, she works with the Lurie Center for Autism.
Dr. Bilbo leads a research team called the Bilbo Lab. They study how things that happen early in life, like during pregnancy or soon after birth, can affect the immune system. They also look at how these early experiences can change brain development. This includes how we think, learn, and feel later in life.
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Staci Bilbo's Education Journey
Learning at University of Texas
Staci Bilbo started her college studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She studied both psychology, which is about the mind, and biology, which is about living things. She earned her first degree in 1998 with high honors. While at UT Austin, she researched how a part of the brain helps frogs learn.
Graduate Studies at Johns Hopkins
After college, Dr. Bilbo went to Johns Hopkins University. She joined a research lab there. She earned her master's degree in 2000. Then, she continued her studies and received her PhD in neuroendocrinology. This field looks at how hormones affect the brain.
What Did She Study in Grad School?
Dr. Bilbo's PhD work focused on how social life and the environment affect the immune system. She studied how these factors could change the body's defenses differently in males and females. For example, she published a paper in 1999 about how immune signals affected how prairie voles chose their partners. She also studied how hormones affected the immune system in Siberian Hamsters.
In 2002, she found that shorter daylight hours could change the immune response in hamsters. She then explored how animals might use daylight changes to get ready for infections. She also studied how a hormone called melatonin helps control the immune system. In 2003, she published more work on how immune responses to daylight changes were different for males and females.
Staci Bilbo's Career and Research
Postdoctoral Work and Early Career
After finishing her PhD, Dr. Bilbo did more advanced training called postdoctoral work. She studied neuroimmunology at the University of Colorado starting in 2003. Here, she researched how a bacterial infection in baby rats could affect their memory when they grew up.
In 2007, Dr. Bilbo became a professor at Duke University. She led the Developmental Neuroimmunology Lab until 2016. At Duke, she studied how the brain and immune system interact as the brain develops. She also looked at how infections in early life could affect brain cells and immune functions later on.
Research at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital
In 2016, Dr. Bilbo joined Harvard Medical School. She also became a research director at the Lurie Center for Autism. This center is part of the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. She studied how being exposed to pollution during early development could affect metabolism, behavior, and brain inflammation in adult animals.
In 2018, Dr. Bilbo and her team studied special brain cells called microglia. They found that these cells play a role in how young rats interact with each other. After this discovery, Dr. Bilbo wrote a paper. It talked about how the immune system, social behavior, and brain reward systems are connected.
Return to Duke University
In July 2019, Dr. Bilbo returned to Duke University. She is now the Haley Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience. She still works with the Lurie Center and other researchers in Boston.
Dr. Bilbo is very active in the science world. She helps edit scientific journals like Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. She also gives talks to encourage more girls and women to study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Awards and Honors
- 2013 – Bass Connections Team Leader – Brain and Society Theme
- 2013 – Glenn Hatton Lecture – UC Riverside Center for Glial-Neuronal Interactions
- 2011 – Frank Beach Young Investigator Award, Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology
- 2010 – Robert Ader New Investigator Award, PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society
- 2010 – Duke Institute for Brain Sciences Research Incubator Award
- 2002, 2004, 2005 – PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society Travel Award
- 2003 – NIMH National Research Service Award, postdoctoral fellow 2005–2008
- 2003 – Women in Neuroscience Travel Award
- 2002 – American Psychological Assoc. Science Directorate Dissertation Research Award
- 1998 – Graduation with Honors and Special Honors in Psychology, The University of Texas
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Dr. Staci Bilbo, a neuroimmunologist.
