Hanna Stevens, MD, PhD
Current Positions
- Professor of Psychiatry
- Ida P. Haller Chair, Psychiatry
- Division Director, Child Psychiatry
Education
- BS in Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University
- PhD in Neuroscience, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- MD in Medical Scholars Program, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign
- Resident in Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
- Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center
Graduate Program Affiliations
Center, Program and Institute Affiliations
Licenses & Certifications
- Diplomat in Subspecialty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
- Diplomat, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Research Interests
The Psychiatry and Early Neurobiological Development Lab (PENDL) at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine seeks to understand molecular and cellular aspects of early brain development and their relevance to psychiatric disorders. Hanna Stevens, the PI, is particularly interested in 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.
We use mostly basic science techniques including molecular, cellular, neuroanatomical and behavioral assessment of mouse models. We also examine risk factors during prenatal development in family cohorts.
Our goal is to advance mental health diagnosis and treatment of disorders across the lifespan. We particularly focus on the high risk times of pregnancy and early development.
- Cellular and molecular neuroscience
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Growth factors
- Cytokines
- Autism and intellectual disabilities
- Psychiatric disorders
- Frontal cortex
- Hippocampus
- Striatum
- Developmental neuroscience
- Learning
- Limbic System
- Stress
- Transgenic models
- Animal behavior
- Molecular biology