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Beth Stevens: Casting immune cells as brain sculptors
http://spectrumnews.org/news/profiles/beth-stevens-casting-immune-cells-as-brain-sculptors/
Beth Stevens: Casting immune cells as brain sculptors
BY NICHOLETTE ZELIADT / 24 SEPTEMBER 2015
Shortly after Beth Stevens launched her lab at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2008, she invited students from the Newton Montessori School, in a nearby suburb, to come for a visit. The children peered at mouse and rat brains bobbing in fluid-filled jars. They also learned how to position delicate slices of brain tissue on glass slides and inspect them with a microscope.
This visit sparked a running relationship with the school, with a steady stream of students visiting the growing lab each year. Soon it became too complicated to bring so many children to the lab, so Stevens decided to take her neuroscience lessons on the road, visiting a number of local elementary schools each year. Last year, she dropped in on the classrooms of her 5- and 8-year-old daughters, Zoe and Riley.
“The kids got really excited,” Stevens says. “It’s become such a thing that the principal wants me to come back for the whole school.”
Stevens’ enthusiasm for science has left a lasting impression on researchers, too. Her pioneering work points to a surprise role in brain development for microglia, a type of cell once considered to simply be the brain’s immune defense system, cleaning up cellular debris, damaged tissue and pathogens. But thanks to Stevens, researchers now appreciate that these non-neuronal cells also play a critical role in shaping brain circuits.
In a 2012 discovery that created a buzz among autism researchers, Stevens and her colleagues discovered that microglia prune neuronal connections, called synapses, in the developing mouse brain. The trimming of synapses is thought to go awry in autism. And indeed, emerging work from Stevens’ lab hints at a role for microglia in the disorder.
Stevens has already earned praise and several prizes for her work. In 2012, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the most prestigious award that the U.S. government bestows on young scientists. And in October, she’ll deliver one of four presidential lectures at the world’s largest gathering of neuroscientists — the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience — an honor she shares with three neuroscience heavyweights, including two Nobel laureates.
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REFERENCES:
Stevens B. et al. J. Neurosci. 18, 9303-9311 (1998) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9801369
Stevens B. and R.D. Fields Science 287, 2267-2271 (2000) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10731149
Stevens B. et al. Neuron 36, 855-868 (2002) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10731149
Ullian E.M. et al. Science 291, 657-661 (2001) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11158678
Stevens B. et al. Cell 131, 1164-1178 (2007) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18083105
Schafer D.P. et al. Neuron 74, 691-705 (2012) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22632727
Beth Stevens: Casting immune cells as brain sculptors
BY NICHOLETTE ZELIADT / 24 SEPTEMBER 2015
Shortly after Beth Stevens launched her lab at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2008, she invited students from the Newton Montessori School, in a nearby suburb, to come for a visit. The children peered at mouse and rat brains bobbing in fluid-filled jars. They also learned how to position delicate slices of brain tissue on glass slides and inspect them with a microscope.
This visit sparked a running relationship with the school, with a steady stream of students visiting the growing lab each year. Soon it became too complicated to bring so many children to the lab, so Stevens decided to take her neuroscience lessons on the road, visiting a number of local elementary schools each year. Last year, she dropped in on the classrooms of her 5- and 8-year-old daughters, Zoe and Riley.
“The kids got really excited,” Stevens says. “It’s become such a thing that the principal wants me to come back for the whole school.”
Stevens’ enthusiasm for science has left a lasting impression on researchers, too. Her pioneering work points to a surprise role in brain development for microglia, a type of cell once considered to simply be the brain’s immune defense system, cleaning up cellular debris, damaged tissue and pathogens. But thanks to Stevens, researchers now appreciate that these non-neuronal cells also play a critical role in shaping brain circuits.
In a 2012 discovery that created a buzz among autism researchers, Stevens and her colleagues discovered that microglia prune neuronal connections, called synapses, in the developing mouse brain. The trimming of synapses is thought to go awry in autism. And indeed, emerging work from Stevens’ lab hints at a role for microglia in the disorder.
Stevens has already earned praise and several prizes for her work. In 2012, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the most prestigious award that the U.S. government bestows on young scientists. And in October, she’ll deliver one of four presidential lectures at the world’s largest gathering of neuroscientists — the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience — an honor she shares with three neuroscience heavyweights, including two Nobel laureates.
<>
REFERENCES:
Stevens B. et al. J. Neurosci. 18, 9303-9311 (1998) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9801369
Stevens B. and R.D. Fields Science 287, 2267-2271 (2000) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10731149
Stevens B. et al. Neuron 36, 855-868 (2002) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10731149
Ullian E.M. et al. Science 291, 657-661 (2001) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11158678
Stevens B. et al. Cell 131, 1164-1178 (2007) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18083105
Schafer D.P. et al. Neuron 74, 691-705 (2012) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22632727
Link from https://twitter.com/katiewr31413491/status/648310541908361217
- one of the outstanding parents some DUers disparage REFLEXIVELY.)