Beth Levine

Dr. Levine is internationally recognized as a leading authority in the field of virus-host interactions and in the field of autophagy.

Dr. Levine received an A.B. from Brown University, an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and completed her postdoctoral training in Infectious Diseases/Viral Pathogenesis at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1993, she joined the faculty at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons where she became Associate Professor of Medicine. In 2004, she became the Jay P. Sanford Professor and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center. In 2011, she became the Director of a newly created Center for Autophagy Research at UT Southwestern and the Charles Cameron Sprague Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science. Since 2008, she has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Dr. Levine’s laboratory has made fundamental discoveries that have helped to open up a new field of biomedical research – the role of autophagy in human health and disease. Her laboratory identified the mammalian autophagy gene, beclin 1, and defined a role for beclin 1 and the autophagy pathway in tumor suppression, antiviral immunity, development, cell death regulation, lifespan regulation, and exercise-induced metabolic effects.

Dr. Levine has received numerous awards for her research including the 2008 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2013, and the 2014 American Society of Clinical Investigation Stanley J. Korsmeyer award.