Dr. Stephen Smith

Biography

Now enjoying emeritus status, Stephen Smith remains active in computational neuroscience, microscopy, and genomic data science. His recent explorations have unearthed transcriptomic evidence of the unrecognized ubiquity of local neuropeptide signaling and its possible involvement in memory engram formation. Smith led an active Stanford laboratory from 1990 to 2014 that explored brain development, structure, function, and disease progression. The lab’s experimental approach typically began with the invention of new imaging methods, followed by the application of these methods to tackle previously intractable experimental challenges. Early on, Smith invented a novel fiber-optic spectrometer for calcium sensing that enabled the detection and measurement of calcium transients in vertebrate neurons, leading to extraordinarily significant discoveries related to calcium influx through NMDA receptor channels. His inventions resulted in numerous significant neuroscience discoveries, including the role of retrograde actin flow in neuronal growth cones, intracellular calcium waves in astrocytes, and the active role of dendritic filopodia in synaptogenesis. Smith's laboratory also invented a unique and widely used high-resolution proteomic imaging method called 'Array Tomography,' which is applied to explore the molecular architecture of cortical microcircuits in mice and humans. After going emeritus, he closed the Stanford laboratory in 2014 and took an exciting new position as a Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, where he has enhanced his data science proficiencies with the institute's production of extremely high-quality neuroscience data. Smith, now an Investigator Emeritus and Allen Neural Dynamics Fellow, plans to return to California for Stanford campus life in Spring 2024.

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