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Beth Stevens

January 01, 1970

Beth Stevens (born 1970) is an associate professor in the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the F. M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children’s Hospital.[1] She has helped to identify the role of microglia and complement proteins in the "pruning" or removal of synaptic cells during brain development, and has also determined that the impaired or abnormal microglial function could be responsible for diseases like autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's.[1]

Beth Stevens
Born1970 (age 53–54)
Brockton, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known forMicroglia and complement receptor-based synaptic pruning mechanisms
SpouseRob Graham
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsBoston Children's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
ThesisActivity-dependent regulation of Schwann cell development by extracellular ATP (2003)
Doctoral advisor
  • Roger W. Davenport
  • R. Douglas Fields
Other academic advisorsBen Barres
Notable studentsDorothy P. Schafer

In 2012, Stevens’s team published evidence that microglia 'eat' synapses, especially those that are weak and unused.[2] These findings pinned down a new role for microglia in wiring the brain, indicating that adult neural circuitry is determined not only by nerve cells but also by the brain’s immune cells. This helped to explain how the brain, which starts out with a surplus of neurons, trims some of the excess neurons away. Neuron named the paper its most influential publication of 2012.[3][4]

Early life and education edit

Beth Stevens was born in 1970 in Brockton, Massachusetts. Her mother taught elementary school, and her father was the school's principal.[5]

Stevens earned a B.S. in Biology from Northeastern University (1993), where she worked full-time in medical labs through Northeastern's co-op program. She earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Maryland, College Park (2003).[5] Stevens completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Ben Barres at the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2008.[6][7] There, she carried out research on the role of astrocytes and in synapse formation by triggering neurons to produce a protein that tags "eat-me" signals on immature synapses instead of mature ones.

Research edit

Currently, Stevens is a Research Associate in Neurology at Boston's Children's Hospital, Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.[8][7] She is the Principal Investigator of the Stevens Lab, which "seeks to understand how neuron-glia communication facilitates the formation, elimination and plasticity of synapses—the points of communication between neurons—during both healthy development and disease."[9] Stevens's work has led her to the discovery of different roles of microglia and their relevance in neurological diseases.

In 2007, Stevens discovered that proteins of the classical complement pathway were required for synapse elimination.[10] She has explored the role of complement components in schizophrenia,[11][12] Alzheimer's disease,[13] and glaucoma.[14]


Stevens and former postdoc Dorothy P. Schafer demonstrated that microglia participate in regulation of neuronal activity by phagocytosing complement-tagged synapses.[15] As the resident phagocytes of the central nervous system (CNS), microglia survey their local environment, clear cellular debris, and make contact with neurons to aid in synaptic pruning during development and learning.[16] They proposed a "quad-partite" expansion of the tripartite synapse model by including microglia as functional participants in developing and mature synapses.[17]

Stevens has found that microglia play a role in synapse loss in a range of disease states, including West Nile virus infection[18] and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease,[13] where synapse loss precedes neuron death.[19] Microglia may contribute to disease both by phagocytosing synaptic material [13] and activating neurotoxic astrocytes.[20] Her research indicates that neurodegenerative diseases may represent a local reactivation of microglial pruning pathways that are beneficial during development but detrimental in the mature brain. Stevens has also identified microglia as a contributor to Rett syndrome progression independent of MECP2 mutation, which is known to cause the disease.[21]

Awards edit

Stevens has received recognition for her discoveries and is the recipient of several awards, including the following:

  • John Merck Fund[22]
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)[5]
  • 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[6]

Stevens received the MacArthur Foundation's award of $625,000 in order to continue her studies on brain cells. Out of the 24 recipients of the award only 9, including Stevens, were women.[23] Stevens received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2012, which is awarded to young scientists by the US government. In October 2015, she gave one of 4 Presidential lectures at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, the world's largest gathering of neuroscientists. She shared this honor with 3 other neuroscientists, two of which are Nobel laureates.

Stevens was named an HHMI Investigator in 2018.[24]

Personal life edit

Stevens is married to Rob Graham.[5]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Beth Stevens". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  2. ^ Schafer, DP; Lehrman, EK; Kautzman, AG; Koyama, R; Mardinly, AR; Yamasaki, R; Ransohoff, RM; Greenberg, ME; Barres, BA; Stevens, B (2012). "Microglia Sculpt Postnatal Neural Circuits in an Activity and Complement-Dependent Manner". Neuron. 74 (4): 691–705. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.03.026. PMC 3528177. PMID 22632727.
  3. ^ . Stevens Lab. 2013-10-31. Archived from the original on 2018-08-13. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  4. ^ "Looking Back: Microglia in synaptic pruning". Cell. Retrieved 2015-10-14.[dead link]
  5. ^ a b c d "Beth Stevens: Casting immune cells as brain sculptors". Spectrum News. 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  6. ^ a b "Beth Stevens". 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  7. ^ a b "Beth Stevens | Broad Institute". 2015-05-14. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  8. ^ "Beth Stevens, PhD | Boston Children's Hospital". Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  9. ^ "Stevens Lab Research". 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  10. ^ Stevens, B; Allen, NJ; Vazquez, LE; Howell, GR; Christopherson, KS; Nouri, N; Micheva, KD; Mehalow, AK; Huberman, AD; Stafford, B; Sher, A; Litke, AM; Lambris, JD; Smith, SJ; John, SW; Barres, BA (14 Dec 2007). "The classical complement cascade mediates CNS synapse elimination". Cell. 131 (6): 1164–78. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2007.10.036. PMID 18083105. S2CID 2830592.
  11. ^ Sekar, A; Bialas, AR; de Rivera, H; Davis, A; Hammond, TR; Kamitaki, N; Tooley, K; Presumey, J; Baum, M; Van Doren, V; Genovese, G; Rose, SA; Handsaker, RE; Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; Daly, MJ; Carroll, MC; Stevens, B; McCarroll, SA (11 Feb 2016). "Schizophrenia risk from complex variation of complement component 4" (PDF). Nature. 530 (7589): 177–183. Bibcode:2016Natur.530..177.. doi:10.1038/nature16549. PMC 4752392. PMID 26814963.
  12. ^ Håvik, B; Le Hellard, S; Rietschel, M; Lybæk, H; Djurovic, S; Mattheisen, M; Mühleisen, TW; Degenhardt, F; Priebe, L; Maier, W; Breuer, R; Schulze, TG; Agartz, I; Melle, I; Hansen, T; Bramham, CR; Nöthen, MM; Stevens, B; Werge, T; Andreassen, OA; Cichon, S; Steen, VM (1 Jul 2011). "The complement control-related genes CSMD1 and CSMD2 associate to schizophrenia". Biol Psychiatry. 70 (1): 35–42. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.01.030. PMID 21439553. S2CID 26368229.
  13. ^ a b c Hong, S; Beja-Glasser, VF; Nfonoyim, BM; Frouin, A; Li, S; Ramakrishnan, S; Merry, KM; Shi, Q; Rosenthal, A; Barres, BA; Lemere, CA; Selkoe, DJ; Stevens, B (6 May 2016). "Complement and microglia mediate early synapse loss in Alzheimer mouse models". Science. 352 (6286): 712–6. Bibcode:2016Sci...352..712H. doi:10.1126/science.aad8373. PMC 5094372. PMID 27033548.
  14. ^ Howell, GR; Macalinao, DG; Sousa, GL; Walden, M; Soto, I; Kneeland, SC; Barbay, JM; King, BL; Marchant, JK; Hibbs, M; Stevens, B; Barres, BA; Clark, AF; Libby, RT; John, SW (7 Mar 2011). "Molecular clustering identifies complement and endothelin induction as early events in a mouse model of glaucoma". J Clin Invest. 121 (4): 1429–44. doi:10.1172/JCI44646. PMC 3069778. PMID 21383504.
  15. ^ Schafer DP, Lehrman EK, Kautzman AG, Koyama R, Mardinly AR, Yamasaki R; et al. (2012). "Microglia sculpt postnatal neural circuits in an activity and complement-dependent manner". Neuron. 74 (4): 691–705. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.03.026. PMC 3528177. PMID 22632727.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ Hong, Soyon; Stevens, Beth (25 Jul 2016). "Microglia: Phagocytosing to Clear, Sculpt, and Eliminate". Dev Cell. 38 (2): 126–8. doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2016.07.006. PMID 27459063.
  17. ^ Schafer, DP; Lehrman, EK; Stevens, B (Jan 2013). "The "quad-partite" synapse: microglia-synapse interactions in the developing and mature CNS". Glia. 61 (1): 24–36. doi:10.1002/glia.22389. PMC 4082974. PMID 22829357.
  18. ^ Vasek, MJ; Garber, C; Dorsey, D; Durrant, DM; Bollman, B; Soung, A; Yu, J; Perez-Torres, C; Frouin, A; Wilton, DK; Funk, K; DeMasters, BK; Jiang, X; Bowen, JR; Mennerick, S; Robinson, JK; Garbow, JR; Tyler, KL; Suthar, MS; Schmidt, RE; Stevens, B; Klein, RS (23 Jun 2016). "A complement-microglial axis drives synapse loss during virus-induced memory impairment". Nature. 534 (7608): 538–43. Bibcode:2016Natur.534..538V. doi:10.1038/nature18283. PMC 5452615. PMID 27337340.
  19. ^ Stephan, AH; Barres, BA; Stevens, B (2012). "The complement system: an unexpected role in synaptic pruning during development and disease". Annu Rev Neurosci. 35: 369–89. doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-061010-113810. PMID 22715882. S2CID 2309037.
  20. ^ Liddelow, SA; Guttenplan, KA; Clarke, LE; Bennett, FC; Bohlen, CJ; Schirmer, L; Bennett, ML; Münch, AE; Chung, WS; Peterson, TC; Wilton, DK; Frouin, A; Napier, BA; Panicker, N; Kumar, M; Buckwalter, MS; Rowitch, DH; Dawson, VL; Dawson, TM; Stevens, B; Barres, BA (18 Jan 2017). "Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia". Nature. 541 (7638): 481–487. Bibcode:2017Natur.541..481L. doi:10.1038/nature21029. PMC 5404890. PMID 28099414.
  21. ^ Schafer, DP; Heller, CT; Gunner, G; Heller, M; Gordon, C; Hammond, T; Wolf, Y; Jung, S; Stevens, B (2016). "Microglia contribute to circuit defects in Mecp2 null mice independent of microglia-specific loss of Mecp2 expression". eLife. 5 (e15224): 481–487. doi:10.7554/eLife.15224. PMC 4961457. PMID 27458802.
  22. ^ "Grant Archive - John Merck Fund". Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  23. ^ Harrington, Rebecca (25 September 2015). "Meet the Brilliant Scientist Who Just Got $625K for Her Work on a Vital, Overlooked Part of the Brain". Tech Insider. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
  24. ^ "HHMI Bets Big on 19 New Investigators". Retrieved 2021-10-12.

January 01, 1970
beth, stevens, born, 1970, associate, professor, department, neurology, harvard, medical, school, kirby, neurobiology, center, boston, children, hospital, helped, identify, role, microglia, complement, proteins, pruning, removal, synaptic, cells, during, brain. Beth Stevens born 1970 is an associate professor in the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the F M Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children s Hospital 1 She has helped to identify the role of microglia and complement proteins in the pruning or removal of synaptic cells during brain development and has also determined that the impaired or abnormal microglial function could be responsible for diseases like autism schizophrenia and Alzheimer s 1 Beth StevensBorn1970 age 53 54 Brockton Massachusetts U S NationalityAmericanAlma materNortheastern University BS University of Maryland PhD Stanford University School of MedicineKnown forMicroglia and complement receptor based synaptic pruning mechanismsSpouseRob GrahamScientific careerFieldsNeuroscienceNeuroimmunologyInstitutionsBoston Children s HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolThesisActivity dependent regulation of Schwann cell development by extracellular ATP 2003 Doctoral advisorRoger W DavenportR Douglas FieldsOther academic advisorsBen BarresNotable studentsDorothy P Schafer In 2012 Stevens s team published evidence that microglia eat synapses especially those that are weak and unused 2 These findings pinned down a new role for microglia in wiring the brain indicating that adult neural circuitry is determined not only by nerve cells but also by the brain s immune cells This helped to explain how the brain which starts out with a surplus of neurons trims some of the excess neurons away Neuron named the paper its most influential publication of 2012 3 4 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Research 3 Awards 4 Personal life 5 ReferencesEarly life and education editBeth Stevens was born in 1970 in Brockton Massachusetts Her mother taught elementary school and her father was the school s principal 5 Stevens earned a B S in Biology from Northeastern University 1993 where she worked full time in medical labs through Northeastern s co op program She earned a Ph D in Neuroscience from the University of Maryland College Park 2003 5 Stevens completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Ben Barres at the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2008 6 7 There she carried out research on the role of astrocytes and in synapse formation by triggering neurons to produce a protein that tags eat me signals on immature synapses instead of mature ones Research editCurrently Stevens is a Research Associate in Neurology at Boston s Children s Hospital Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard 8 7 She is the Principal Investigator of the Stevens Lab which seeks to understand how neuron glia communication facilitates the formation elimination and plasticity of synapses the points of communication between neurons during both healthy development and disease 9 Stevens s work has led her to the discovery of different roles of microglia and their relevance in neurological diseases In 2007 Stevens discovered that proteins of the classical complement pathway were required for synapse elimination 10 She has explored the role of complement components in schizophrenia 11 12 Alzheimer s disease 13 and glaucoma 14 Stevens and former postdoc Dorothy P Schafer demonstrated that microglia participate in regulation of neuronal activity by phagocytosing complement tagged synapses 15 As the resident phagocytes of the central nervous system CNS microglia survey their local environment clear cellular debris and make contact with neurons to aid in synaptic pruning during development and learning 16 They proposed a quad partite expansion of the tripartite synapse model by including microglia as functional participants in developing and mature synapses 17 Stevens has found that microglia play a role in synapse loss in a range of disease states including West Nile virus infection 18 and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer s disease 13 where synapse loss precedes neuron death 19 Microglia may contribute to disease both by phagocytosing synaptic material 13 and activating neurotoxic astrocytes 20 Her research indicates that neurodegenerative diseases may represent a local reactivation of microglial pruning pathways that are beneficial during development but detrimental in the mature brain Stevens has also identified microglia as a contributor to Rett syndrome progression independent of MECP2 mutation which is known to cause the disease 21 Awards editStevens has received recognition for her discoveries and is the recipient of several awards including the following John Merck Fund 22 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers PECASE 5 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 6 Stevens received the MacArthur Foundation s award of 625 000 in order to continue her studies on brain cells Out of the 24 recipients of the award only 9 including Stevens were women 23 Stevens received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers PECASE in 2012 which is awarded to young scientists by the US government In October 2015 she gave one of 4 Presidential lectures at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience the world s largest gathering of neuroscientists She shared this honor with 3 other neuroscientists two of which are Nobel laureates Stevens was named an HHMI Investigator in 2018 24 Personal life editStevens is married to Rob Graham 5 References edit a b Beth Stevens MacArthur Foundation Retrieved 2015 09 29 Schafer DP Lehrman EK Kautzman AG Koyama R Mardinly AR Yamasaki R Ransohoff RM Greenberg ME Barres BA Stevens B 2012 Microglia Sculpt Postnatal Neural Circuits in an Activity and Complement Dependent Manner Neuron 74 4 691 705 doi 10 1016 j neuron 2012 03 026 PMC 3528177 PMID 22632727 Neuron Highlights Stevens Lab Publication in 25th Anniversary Issue Stevens Lab 2013 10 31 Archived from the original on 2018 08 13 Retrieved 2018 03 02 Looking Back Microglia in synaptic pruning Cell Retrieved 2015 10 14 dead link a b c d Beth Stevens Casting immune cells as brain sculptors Spectrum News 2015 09 24 Retrieved 2015 10 14 a b Beth Stevens 2011 07 23 Retrieved 2015 10 14 a b Beth Stevens Broad Institute 2015 05 14 Retrieved 2018 03 02 Beth Stevens PhD Boston Children s Hospital Retrieved 2018 03 02 Stevens Lab Research 2011 07 18 Retrieved 2018 03 02 Stevens B Allen NJ Vazquez LE Howell GR Christopherson KS Nouri N Micheva KD Mehalow AK Huberman AD Stafford B Sher A Litke AM Lambris JD Smith SJ John SW Barres BA 14 Dec 2007 The classical complement cascade mediates CNS synapse elimination Cell 131 6 1164 78 doi 10 1016 j cell 2007 10 036 PMID 18083105 S2CID 2830592 Sekar A Bialas AR de Rivera H Davis A Hammond TR Kamitaki N Tooley K Presumey J Baum M Van Doren V Genovese G Rose SA Handsaker RE Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Daly MJ Carroll MC Stevens B McCarroll SA 11 Feb 2016 Schizophrenia risk from complex variation of complement component 4 PDF Nature 530 7589 177 183 Bibcode 2016Natur 530 177 doi 10 1038 nature16549 PMC 4752392 PMID 26814963 Havik B Le Hellard S Rietschel M Lybaek H Djurovic S Mattheisen M Muhleisen TW Degenhardt F Priebe L Maier W Breuer R Schulze TG Agartz I Melle I Hansen T Bramham CR Nothen MM Stevens B Werge T Andreassen OA Cichon S Steen VM 1 Jul 2011 The complement control related genes CSMD1 and CSMD2 associate to schizophrenia Biol Psychiatry 70 1 35 42 doi 10 1016 j biopsych 2011 01 030 PMID 21439553 S2CID 26368229 a b c Hong S Beja Glasser VF Nfonoyim BM Frouin A Li S Ramakrishnan S Merry KM Shi Q Rosenthal A Barres BA Lemere CA Selkoe DJ Stevens B 6 May 2016 Complement and microglia mediate early synapse loss in Alzheimer mouse models Science 352 6286 712 6 Bibcode 2016Sci 352 712H doi 10 1126 science aad8373 PMC 5094372 PMID 27033548 Howell GR Macalinao DG Sousa GL Walden M Soto I Kneeland SC Barbay JM King BL Marchant JK Hibbs M Stevens B Barres BA Clark AF Libby RT John SW 7 Mar 2011 Molecular clustering identifies complement and endothelin induction as early events in a mouse model of glaucoma J Clin Invest 121 4 1429 44 doi 10 1172 JCI44646 PMC 3069778 PMID 21383504 Schafer DP Lehrman EK Kautzman AG Koyama R Mardinly AR Yamasaki R et al 2012 Microglia sculpt postnatal neural circuits in an activity and complement dependent manner Neuron 74 4 691 705 doi 10 1016 j neuron 2012 03 026 PMC 3528177 PMID 22632727 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Hong Soyon Stevens Beth 25 Jul 2016 Microglia Phagocytosing to Clear Sculpt and Eliminate Dev Cell 38 2 126 8 doi 10 1016 j devcel 2016 07 006 PMID 27459063 Schafer DP Lehrman EK Stevens B Jan 2013 The quad partite synapse microglia synapse interactions in the developing and mature CNS Glia 61 1 24 36 doi 10 1002 glia 22389 PMC 4082974 PMID 22829357 Vasek MJ Garber C Dorsey D Durrant DM Bollman B Soung A Yu J Perez Torres C Frouin A Wilton DK Funk K DeMasters BK Jiang X Bowen JR Mennerick S Robinson JK Garbow JR Tyler KL Suthar MS Schmidt RE Stevens B Klein RS 23 Jun 2016 A complement microglial axis drives synapse loss during virus induced memory impairment Nature 534 7608 538 43 Bibcode 2016Natur 534 538V doi 10 1038 nature18283 PMC 5452615 PMID 27337340 Stephan AH Barres BA Stevens B 2012 The complement system an unexpected role in synaptic pruning during development and disease Annu Rev Neurosci 35 369 89 doi 10 1146 annurev neuro 061010 113810 PMID 22715882 S2CID 2309037 Liddelow SA Guttenplan KA Clarke LE Bennett FC Bohlen CJ Schirmer L Bennett ML Munch AE Chung WS Peterson TC Wilton DK Frouin A Napier BA Panicker N Kumar M Buckwalter MS Rowitch DH Dawson VL Dawson TM Stevens B Barres BA 18 Jan 2017 Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia Nature 541 7638 481 487 Bibcode 2017Natur 541 481L doi 10 1038 nature21029 PMC 5404890 PMID 28099414 Schafer DP Heller CT Gunner G Heller M Gordon C Hammond T Wolf Y Jung S Stevens B 2016 Microglia contribute to circuit defects in Mecp2 null mice independent of microglia specific loss of Mecp2 expression eLife 5 e15224 481 487 doi 10 7554 eLife 15224 PMC 4961457 PMID 27458802 Grant Archive John Merck Fund Retrieved 2018 03 02 Harrington Rebecca 25 September 2015 Meet the Brilliant Scientist Who Just Got 625K for Her Work on a Vital Overlooked Part of the Brain Tech Insider Retrieved 2016 03 16 HHMI Bets Big on 19 New Investigators Retrieved 2021 10 12 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Beth Stevens amp oldid 1218410166, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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