Ben A. Barres (1954–2017)

Ben Barres researched neurobiology during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries as a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. His primary research focus was glial cells, which are the most abundant cells of the nervous system that support and protect neurons. There are many kinds of glial cells, and Barres examined their roles in the nervous system as well as in development and disease. Prior to Barres’s work, researchers believed that neurons were the primary players in brain function and that glial cells played a passive role. Barres discovered that glial cells play a key role in creating and eliminating synapses, which are the connections between nerve cells. Barres was transgender and after transitioning at age forty-three spoke frequently about sexism in science. Through his scientific research, Barres brought attention to the function of glial cells in development and disease, and through his activism he became a role model for LGBTQIA+ people in science.

1. Early Life and Education
2. Early Professional Career
3. Gender Transition and Activism
4. Honors and Awards

Early Life and Education

Barres was born in West Orange, New Jersey, on 13 September 1954. He was assigned female at birth and given the name Barbara. He later transitioned from female to male at the age of forty-three. His father worked as a salesman who initially sold baby furniture and later transitioned to selling liquor, while his mother was a homemaker. Barres grew up with three siblings, including a twin sister, and his family was not well off. In Barres’s autobiography titled The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist, he states that as early as three or four years he preferred engaging in activities typically associated with boys. As he grew older, he felt uncomfortable wearing traditional feminine clothing. Then, in high school, children often bullied Barres due to his differing gender expression. That disconnect between his gender identity and societal expectations caused him emotional distress and confusion over his gender identity.

As early as four years old, Barres already knew he wanted to be a scientist and as he progressed through school, he sought out ways to supplement his learning through science and math programs. According to Barres, his favorite toys to play with during his childhood years were chemistry sets and microscopes. During his middle school and high school years, Barres notes in his autobiography that he was not being challenged enough in his classes. As a result, Barres took supplemental science and math courses such as a mathematical astronomy course at Rutgers University’s in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and courses offered through the Science Honors Program of Columbia University in New York City, New York. He got one of his first research experiences through a summer program at Bell Laboratories prior to entering college.

In 1972, Barres attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, on a scholarship. While at MIT, Barres took a course with Hans-Lukas Teuber, the head of the psychology department at MIT, who touched on what is still unknown about the brain but also how much there is to learn from studying patients with brain injuries. Barres writes in his autobiography that after taking that course he wanted to pursue a career in neurobiology and started taking pre-medical courses. However, during his time at MIT, he also experienced various forms of sexism from his professors when he presented as a woman. According to his autobiography, despite his academic achievements, he encountered difficulties finding a research lab for his thesis due to his gender. He eventually acquired a position under a female professor but reported that he did not gain much from the experience. In 1976, Barres graduated from MIT with a bachelor of science degree and then began medical school.

From 1976 to 1979, Barres pursued medical training at Dartmouth Medical School, which is called the Geisel School of Medicine as of 2025, in Hanover, New Hampshire, graduating with his MD in 1979. Barres reports that while at Dartmouth, he experienced sexism due to his gender presentation, and the faculty often ignored him. Barres notes that he learned the term gender identity while at Dartmouth. As medical school was ending, Barres concluded that he would pursue a medical internship before a residency in neurology. The neurology residency Barres was based at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. During his residency, he became chief resident and passed his board exams. However, Barres found that there were not many treatments available for those with neurological conditions, so he turned toward research to study those treatment options.

In 1983, Barres enrolled in the neuroscience doctoral program at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts. To help pay his student loans, Barres worked as a physician practicing neurology from Friday night to Monday morning, while he was conducting his doctoral research. One of his rotations was under Linda Chun, a researcher and new faculty member at Harvard at the time. While Barres was in Chun’s lab, he learned how to isolate and culture, or grow, glial cells. Barres started researching glial cells due to the observations he made during his neurology residency about their potential significance in brain function and disease. In his next rotation, Barres worked under the mentorship of David Corey, who studied they physiology of hair cells, which are cells in the inner ear that pick up stimuli from the environment and convert them into signals for the brain. According to Martin Raff, Barres’s postdoctoral mentor, Corey was proficient at using the patch-clamp technique, which researchers had only developed in the late 1970s. Barres wanted to learn how to use the patch-clamp technique to study ion channels in glial cells. Ion channels are protein structures that allow ions to pass through cell membranes, which allows nerve cells to function. According to Andrew Huberman, a former postdoctoral researcher who worked under Barres, he found joy in tackling neglected problems, expressing his preference for exploring the untouched areas of neuroscience. Thus, despite Corey’s lab having no prior focus on glial cells, Barres chose to make them his area of study.

Using the techniques he learned, Barres isolated certain types of glial cells and noted the diverse array of ion channels in the plasma membrane of those cells. Despite not being electrically excitable like neurons, glial cells had ion channels and receptors for neurotransmitters. The glial cells that Barres isolated were astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and oligodendrocyte precursor cells, or OPCs. As of 2025, researchers understand astrocytes to primarily maintain the structure of the central nervous system and provide nutrients to neurons. Oligodendrocytes are a part of the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, and create myelin to insulate neurons. OPCs are cells that become oligodendrocytes or remain as precursor cells. Barres spent the next six years characterizing the ion channels. According to Raff, the work that Barres conducted on ion channels was new and important. Thus, Barres’s research opened new possibilities for understanding the functions of glial cells in the brain.

Following his graduate studies, Barres embarked on a three-year postdoctoral research period in the lab of Martin Raff at University College London, in London, England, where he studied oligodendrocyte development. During that time, Barres purified various glial cells, including oligodendrocytes. When observing OPCs, he took note of the specific signaling molecules that influence the survival, growth, and differentiation of those cells. Differentiation is when an immature cell, such as an OPC, becomes a mature cell, like an oligodendrocyte. Another major part of his postdoctoral research was Barres’s identification of a mechanism in the developing rat optic nerve. The mechanism involves the competition that oligodendrocytes face for survival. During CNS development, the survival of the oligodendrocytes matches up with the number and length of axons formed. Barres’s work provided insights into the factors that influence oligodendrocyte development.

Early Professional Career

After completing his postdoctoral research, in 1993, Barres moved from University College London to Stanford University School of Medicine and established his own lab within the neurobiology department. Barres cited not only the scientific environment but also the department’s emphasis on high-quality teaching and mentoring as reasons for choosing Stanford. A mentor to numerous students and postdocs, according to Huberman, Barres earned a reputation for the intensity of his lab meetings. The meetings often lasted three hours or more, with a lot of people attending. Additionally, the discussion topics ranged widely and were often unstructured.

While at Stanford, Barres continued studying interactions between glial and neuronal cells and clarified their role in synapse formation and elimination. Barres and colleagues studied astrocytes and observed that they were necessary to form synapses and function normally, but were are necessary for synapse elimination. They spent a long time identifying the specific molecules mediating those interactions. Typically, those molecules were signaling molecules secreted by glial cells and interacting with their corresponding receptors on the neuronal surface. Observing those processes was crucial in clarifying the role that glia play in neurodegenerative diseases.

Gender Transition and Activism

In 1997, at age forty-three, Barres went through a gender transition, adopting a male identity and changing his name from Barbara to Ben. He also at that time began openly discussing the challenges he had faced when he presented as a woman in the field of science. He wrote extensively about his experiences, contributing to the discourse on gender equality in academia. One of those works was his 2006 Nature article, “Does Gender Matter?,” in which he counters the idea that gender differences impact scientific ability. He experienced firsthand the differences in treatment before and after his transition. For example, Barres noted that after giving a seminar, a colleague remarked that Barres’s seminar and work were better than his sister’s, unaware that the sister was actually Barres before his transition. That experience highlighted the pervasive gender bias in science, which Barres would continue to challenge throughout his career. He became a vocal advocate for women and minorities in science, and fought for the rights and representation of women, minorities, and transgender individuals, particularly within the realm of science. He did so by being a part of selection committees, and editorial boards, where he advocated to get women and other minorities into different leadership positions or to speak at conferences. According to Freeman, he emerged as a role model for the LGBTQIA+ community, including those pursuing scientific careers.

Honors and Awards

During his academic career, he rose through the ranks at Stanford University until he became Chair of Neurobiology, and participated in a variety of scientific organizations, such as the National Academy of Sciences. In 1998, Barres took on the position of associate professor of neurobiology and developmental biology and soon after in 2001, he attained full professorship. Additionally, starting in 2005, Barres served as the director of the master of science in medicine degree program for doctoral students, a program that he had established. Then, in 2008, he became the chair of Stanford’s neurobiology department. Throughout his career, Barres published 167 peer-reviewed papers in highly respected scientific journals, including Nature, Cell, and Science. Barres was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine. In 2013, he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences, being one of the first openly transgender people to receive that honor.

In 2016, Barres was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As Huberman explains, facing his illness, Barres expressed that he had lived life on his own terms, achieving his goals of switching genders, becoming a scientist, and studying glia.

Barres died on 27 December 2017 at the age of 63.

Sources

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