Carol Tamminga, M.D. - Faculty Profile

Biography

Dr. Tamminga holds the Stanton Sharp Distinguished Chair in Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and is the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and the Chief, Translational Research in Psychosis at UT Southwestern. She received her M.D. degree from Vanderbilt University and completed residency training in psychiatry at the University of Chicago. She served on the University of Chicago faculty from 1975 to 1979 and moved to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) for training in Neurology in 1978. After joining the faculty at the University of Maryland Medical School in 1979, she practiced research, clinical care, and teaching there until joining the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical School in 2003.

Dr. Tamminga has been active in governing boards in the United States. She has been a member of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) National Advisory Board and served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the NIMH and the National Institute of Drug Abuse, as Council Member and President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, as a Member and Chair of the Psychopharmacological Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as Consultant for the Orphan Products Development Review Group, FDA. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation (NARSAD) and a member on several of their committees. She has been a Deputy Editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry and on the editorial board of several other journals in the field. Dr. Tamminga was elected to the National Academies of Medicine, then the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in 1998 and has served on several IOM committees in that capacity.

The goal of Dr. Tamminga’s research is to examine and understand the mechanisms underlying schizophrenia, especially its most prominent symptoms, psychosis and memory dysfunction, in order to build rational treatments for the illness. She evaluates the function of the living human brain in individuals with and without schizophrenia, using brain imaging techniques. Then, building on this knowledge, she uses human postmortem brain tissue to translate the functional alterations from the living human patient into molecular observations of the illness. Her ultimate goal is to base novel pharmacologies for psychosis and memory dysfunction on these observations and to use the altered in vivo imaging and postmortem molecular changes as biomarkers and targets for identifying animal models of disease and novel active pharmaceuticals.

Education

Medical School: Vanderbilt University Hospital (1971)
Internship: Blodgett Memorial Medical Center (1972), Internal Medicine
Residency: University of Chicago Hospitals (1975), Psychiatry

Research Interest

Human Brain Imaging
Human Translational Neuroscience
Postmortem Brain Research
Schizophrenia Research

Publications

Featured Publications

Clinical Phenotypes of Psychosis in the Bipolar and Schizophrenia Network on Intermediate Phenotypes (B-SNIP).: Tamminga CA, Ivleva EI, Keshavan MS, Pearlson GD, Clementz BA, Witte B, Morris DW, Bishop J, Thaker GK, Sweeney JA Am J Psychiatry 2013 Jul
Diffusion Tensor Imaging White Matter Endophenotypes in Patients With Schizophrenia or Psychotic Bipolar Disorder and Their Relatives.: Skudlarski P, Schretlen DJ, Thaker GK, Stevens MC, Keshavan MS, Sweeney JA, Tamminga CA, Clementz BA, O'Neil K, Pearlson GD Am J Psychiatry 2013 Jun
Neuropsychological Impairments in Schizophrenia and Psychotic Bipolar Disorder: Findings from the Bipolar and Schizophrenia Network on Intermediate Phenotypes (B-SNIP) Study.: Hill SK, Reilly JL, Keefe RS, Gold JM, Bishop JR, Gershon ES, Tamminga CA, Pearlson GD, Keshavan MS, Sweeney JA Am J Psychiatry 2013 Jun
Kv3.1-containing K(+) channels are reduced in untreated schizophrenia and normalized with antipsychotic drugs.: Yanagi M, Joho RH, Southcott SA, Shukla AA, Ghose S, Tamminga CA Mol. Psychiatry 2013 Apr
Reimagining psychoses: An agnostic approach to diagnosis.: Keshavan MS, Clementz BA, Pearlson GD, Sweeney JA, Tamminga CA Schizophr. Res. 2013 Mar
Psychosis is emerging as a learning and memory disorder.: Tamminga CA Neuropsychopharmacology 2013 Jan 38 1 247
The hippocampal formation in schizophrenia.: Tamminga CA, Stan AD, Wagner AD Am J Psychiatry 2010 Oct 167 10 1178-93
Molecular adaptations underlying susceptibility and resistance to social defeat in brain reward regions.: Krishnan V, Han MH, Graham DL, Berton O, Renthal W, Russo SJ, Laplant Q, Graham A, Lutter M, Lagace DC, Ghose S, Reister R, Tannous P, Green TA, Neve RL, Chakravarty S, Kumar A, Eisch AJ, Self DW, Lee FS, Tamminga CA, Cooper DC, Gershenfeld HK, Nestler EJ Cell 2007 Oct 131 2 391-404
Human postmortem tissue: what quality markers matter?: Stan AD, Ghose S, Gao XM, Roberts RC, Lewis-Amezcua K, Hatanpaa KJ, Tamminga CA Brain Res. 2006 Dec 1123 1 1-11
Probing the human hippocampus using rCBF: contrasts in schizophrenia.: Medoff DR, Holcomb HH, Lahti AC, Tamminga CA Hippocampus 2001 11 5 543-50

Honors & Awards

Flynn Award
Yale University Department of Psychiatry (2011)
Kempf Award, American Psychiatric Society
This award recognizes a senior researcher who has made a significant contribution to research on the causes and treatment of schizophrenia as both a researcher and a mentor. (2011)
Leiber Award for Schizophrenia Research
The Lieber Prize for Schizophrenia Research is given in recognition of a research scientist who has made distinguished contributions to the understanding of schizophrenia. (2011)
Arvid Carlsson Medal Award
(2008)
Research Lecturer of the Year
University of Maryland, School of Medicine (2001)

Professional Associations/Affiliations

Co-Founder and Organizer, International Congress on Schizophrenia Research
Deputy Editor, American Journal of Psychiatry
Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
NARSAD Scientific Council Member, currently Executive Committee
Stanley Foundation Advisory Board