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Episode details

Radio 4,21 Dec 2021,20 mins

Brain Matters

Four Thought

Available for over a year

Beth Stevens talks about the brain cells most people have never heard of, and suggests what they might have to teach us. Beth is a neuroscientist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who in 2015 was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship - the so-called 'genius grant' - for her work on microglial cells. In this talk she describes the connections between her research and her own family history, and explains why these cells - for so long overlooked in favour of neurons - may be the key to understanding much about the brain we don't yet know. Producer: Giles Edwards

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