Tracy Bale facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tracy Bale
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| Alma mater | Washington State University (B.S.) University of Washington (Ph.D.) |
| Known for | Epigenetics, Prenatal stress |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, Salk Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | Daniel Dorsa |
| Other academic advisors | Wylie Vale |
Dr. Tracy Bale is an American scientist who studies the brain. She is a neuroscientist and a molecular biologist. This means she studies how the brain works and the tiny parts inside cells. Dr. Bale works at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She leads important research there. Her main work looks at how stress on parents, or stress early in life, can affect a child's brain development. She also studies how this stress can impact health throughout a person's life. Dr. Bale is also the current President of the International Brain Research Organization.
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Early Life and Education
Tracy Bale started her journey in science at Washington State University. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1992. She studied molecular biology and genetics there. These fields look at how living things are made and how traits are passed down.
After a short break, she went to the University of Washington. There, she began her Ph.D. studies in neurobiology. Neurobiology is the study of the nervous system and the brain. She worked with a professor named Daniel Dorsa. Dr. Bale earned her Ph.D. in 1997. After that, she became a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute. She researched neuroendocrinology, which is about how hormones affect the brain. Her supervisor there was Wylie Vale.
Career and Brain Research
Dr. Bale joined the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. She helped lead a center that studied how sex and gender affect brain health. She also directed research in neuroscience at the School of Veterinary Medicine. Her work showed how stress can affect brain development differently in males and females.
She also found out why dieting might make people more sensitive to stress. This important discovery was even featured in Science magazine.
In 2017, Dr. Bale moved her lab to the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She became a professor there. She also directed a center for epigenetic research. Epigenetics is a field that studies how your genes can be turned on or off. This can happen because of things like stress or diet.
In 2022, Dr. Bale moved to the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She was chosen to lead new research on women's health and stress. She now directs studies on how stress can pass from one generation to the next. She also leads research on how sex differences affect the brain. She works with Scott Thompson in the Laboratory of Translational Psychiatry.
How Stress Affects Brains
Dr. Bale's recent work focuses on understanding stress. She studies how stress and difficult experiences impact the brain. She looks at how this affects brain function throughout life. She also studies how these effects might be passed on to children. This idea is part of something called the developmental origins of health and disease.
Her research looks at tiny processes inside cells. She studies how stress signals affect mitochondria. These are like the powerhouses of cells. She also looks at how genes are turned on or off. This includes changes to chromatin, which is how DNA is packaged. She also studies tiny packages called extracellular vesicles. These packages carry messages between cells.
Dr. Bale has shown how stress on parents can affect their children. For example, she found that if female mice (mothers) are stressed during pregnancy, their babies are more sensitive to stress later. These findings were first made in mice. But they have since been seen in humans too.
Her studies on "germline cells" have been widely shared. Germline cells are the cells that pass genetic information from parents to children. Major news outlets like Scientific American and The New York Times have covered her work.
Awards and Honors
Dr. Bale has received many awards for her important work.
- National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award (1997)
- American Neuroendocrine Society Fellowship (2001)
- Frank Beach Award, Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (2003)
- McCabe Fellow Award (2003)
- Ziskind-Somerfeld Award, Society for Biological Psychiatry (2008)
- Career Development Award, Society for Neuroscience (2008)
- Richard E. Weitzman Award, Endocrine Society (2011)
- Medtronic Award, Society for Women's Health Research (2012)
- Daniel H. Efron Award, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2016)
- Maryland Top 100 Women (2021)
