Tara Spires-Jones facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tara L Spires-Jones, DPhil, FMedSci
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2019 by Sparatires
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Tara Spires
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| Alma mater | University of Texas at Austin University of Oxford |
| Known for | Researching mechanisms of synapse degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School University of Edinburgh |
| Thesis | Genetic and epigenetic interactions in activity-dependent cortical plasticity. (2003) |
Tara Spires-Jones is a leading scientist who studies brain diseases. She is a professor of neurodegeneration at the University of Edinburgh. This means she studies diseases that cause brain cells to get sick or die. She also leads the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the university.
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Her Journey in Science
Tara Spires-Jones started her studies at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, she earned two degrees: one in biochemistry (the study of life's chemistry) and another in French.
She then won a special scholarship called the British Marshall Scholarship. This allowed her to go to the University of Oxford in the UK. There, she earned her D.Phil. (a high research degree, like a Ph.D.). Her research focused on how the environment affects tiny connections in the brain called synapses.
After finishing her D.Phil. in 2004, Dr. Spires-Jones moved to the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She worked as a research fellow, studying how synapses break down in Alzheimer's disease. She continued her work there, becoming an instructor and then an assistant professor.
In 2013, Dr. Spires-Jones moved to Scotland to join the University of Edinburgh. She became a professor of neurodegeneration in 2017.
Helping Others and Sharing Science
Dr. Spires-Jones is part of important groups like the FENS-KAVLI Network of Excellence. She also helps decide which research projects get funding for Alzheimer's Research UK. She advises the Scottish Government on science topics too.
She loves to share science with everyone. She works with the Science Media Centre, helping journalists report on new science news. This helps make sure science information is clear and correct for the public.
Her Amazing Brain Research
Dr. Spires-Jones's main research looks at how brain cells get damaged in diseases like dementia. She especially focuses on Alzheimer's disease. She studies the tiny connections between brain cells, called synapses, and how they break down.
Understanding Alzheimer's Disease
She made a big discovery about two proteins, amyloid beta and tau proteins. These proteins build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Dr. Spires-Jones found that these harmful proteins gather inside the synapses. This buildup causes the synapses to break down, which leads to problems with thinking and memory.
Her team showed that if you lower the levels of these toxic proteins, brain function can get better. They were also the first to find these specific proteins in the synapses of human brains affected by Alzheimer's. She used a special technique to study human brain tissue after death. Her work has even helped create a new medicine being tested to remove amyloid beta from synapses.
How Tau Protein Spreads
Dr. Spires-Jones also found out how tau protein spreads through the brain. When tau protein spreads, it causes more brain cells to die. She discovered that tau can spread from one synapse to another, like a chain reaction.
Her early work used special mouse models to study how tau spreads. She found that tau protein can move through brain circuits. More recently, her team saw tau in human brain synapses. This suggests that stopping tau from spreading could help stop the disease from getting worse. This important discovery won a major award, the Alzheimer's Association's 2024 Inge Grundke-Iqbal prize.
Other Important Discoveries
Dr. Spires-Jones's research has also shown that another protein, alpha-synuclein, builds up in synapses in Dementia with Lewy bodies. This suggests that these connections help the protein spread damage.
She has also linked certain genes, like Apolipoprotein E4 and Clusterin, to synapse damage in Alzheimer's. Her work has also helped us understand synapse damage in other brain conditions, like motor neuron disease and schizophrenia.
Her Life Outside Work
Besides her busy science career, Tara Spires-Jones has a fun hobby. She is a member of the University of Edinburgh's Acapella group. She sings the tenor part in the group.
