Environmental Health Sciences Research Center

University of Iowa College of Public Health

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Hanna Stevens, MD, PhD

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Center Affiliation and Expertise: Associate Member, Population Health

Hanna Stevens runs the Psychiatry and Early Neurobiological Development Lab (PENDL) at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Her research seeks to understand molecular and cellular aspects of early brain development and their relevance to psychiatric disorders. Her work is particularly focused on understanding how prenatal stress, environmental exposures and genes that play a role in early development have an impact on childhood behavior and act as risk factors for multiple psychiatric disorders. The goal of the lab is to advance mental health diagnosis and treatment of disorders across the lifespan. The lab is particularly focused on the high risk times of pregnancy and early development.

https://stevens.lab.uiowa.edu/

Publications:

  • Abbott PW; Gumusoglu SB; Bittle J; Beversdorf DQ; Stevens HE (2018) Prenatal stress and genetic risk: how prenatal stress interacts with genetics to alter risk for psychiatric illness. Psychoneuroendocrinology. Jan 30;90:9-21. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.01.019. PubMed PMID: 29407514.
  • Bittle J, Stevens HE. (2018) The role of glucocorticoid, interleukin-1beta, and antioxidants in prenatal stress effects on embryonic microglia. Journal of Neuroinflammation. Feb 16;15(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s12974-018-1079-7. Pub Med PMID: 29452586.
  • Gumusoglu SB, Fine RS, Bittle J, Murray S, Stevens HE. (2017) The role of IL-6 in neurodevelopment after prenatal stress. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2017 Oct;65:274-283. PMID: 28546058.
  • Salmaso N, Stevens HE, McNeill J, ElSayed M, Rena Q, Maragnoli ME, Schwartz ML, Tomasi S, Sapolsky RM, Duman R, Vaccarino FM (2016) Fibroblast growth factor 2 modulates hypothalamic pituitary axis activity and anxiety behavior through glucocorticoid receptors. Biological Psychiatry. 2016 Sep 15;80(6):479-89. PMID: 27133954.
  • Lussier SJ, Stevens HE. Delays in GABAergic Interneuron Development and Behavioral Inhibition after Prenatal Stress. Dev Neurobiol. 2016. doi: 10.1002/dneu.22376. PubMed PMID: 26724783.
  • Hamed AM, Kauer AJ, Stevens HE. Why the Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Matters. Front Psychiatry. 2015;6:168. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00168. PubMed PMID: 26635643; PMCID: PMC4659921.
  • Brotnow L, Reiss D, Stover CS, Ganiban J, Leve LD, Neiderhiser JM, Shaw DS, Stevens HE. Expectant Mothers Maximizing Opportunities: Maternal Characteristics Moderate Multifactorial Prenatal Stress in the Prediction of Birth Weight in a Sample of Children Adopted at Birth. PLoS One. 2015;10(11):e0141881. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141881. PubMed PMID: 26544958; PMCID: PMC4636431.
  • Stevens, H. E., Vaccarino, F. M. (2015). How animal models inform child and adolescent psychiatry. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(5), 352-9. PMID: 25901771.
  • Fine, R. S., Zhang, J. & Stevens, H. E. (2014). Prenatal stress and inhibitory neuron systems: implications for neuropsychiatric disorders. Mol Psychiatry, 19(6), 641-51. PMID: 24751963.
  • Stevens, H. E., Su, T., Yanagawa, Y. & Vaccarino, F. M. (2013). Prenatal stress delays inhibitory neuron progenitor migration in the developing neocortex. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(4), 509-21.
  • Stevens, H. E., Jiang, G. Y., Schwartz, M. L. & Vaccarino, F. M. (2012). Learning and memory depend on fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 functioning in hippocampus. Biol Psychiatry, 71(12), 1090-8.
  • Vaccarino, F. M., Urban, A. E., Stevens, H. E., Szekely, A., Abyzov, A., Grigorenko, E., Gerstein, M. & Weissman, S. (2011). The promise of stem cell research for neuropsychiatric disorders. J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 52(4), 504-16.