Beth Stevens | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1970 (age 53–54) Brockton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Microglia and complement receptor-based synaptic pruning mechanisms |
| Spouse | Rob Graham |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | Boston Children's Hospital Harvard Medical School |
| Thesis | Activity-dependent regulation of Schwann cell development by extracellular ATP (2003) |
| Doctoral advisor |
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| Other academic advisors | Ben Barres |
| Notable students | Dorothy P. Schafer |
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]
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]