Molecular Psychiatry  

A New Program to Map Networks and Pathway Implicated in CNS disorders

The scale up of data production and analysis in neuroscience presents great promise for understanding the complexities of the brain (Nature Neuroscience, Vol 7, Number 5, 2004). Genomics, comparative genomics, gene expression atlases, proteomics and imaging data are starting to build at a significant rate. Databases require new skills to mine and present a wealth of information for neurology researchers.

Additionally a major theme has emerged in recent years moving towards studying biological systems as integrated whole. This system biology approach attempts to evaluate global interlinked events instead of moving elements out of their context. Also a key program has been initiated under the NIH Roadmap initiative entitled “Building Blocks, Biological Pathways, and Networks”  that aims at providing the right tools to study networks and pathways in health and in disease. Highlighting perturbed pathways will be of great significance in terms of understanding disease mechanisms.

The newest of the omics technologies that promises to help understand these perturbations is Metabolomics an area that has been highlighted as important to develop under the NIH roadmap initiative (E. Zerhouni (2003) Science 302, 63-64&72; nihroadmap.nih.gov). Metabolomics provides an overview of the metabolic status and global biochemical events associated with a cellular or biological system. It is closer to function than transcriptomics and proteomics. As such, it can accurately and comprehensively depict both the steady-state physiological state of a cell or organism and of their dynamic responses to genetic, abiotic and biotic environmental modulation. Together with the transcriptome and the proteome it tells the story of the regulation of the living organism.

Under the program Molecular Psychiatry at Duke we bring the power of the omics technologies to interrogate perturbations in networks and pathways in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. We compare these perturbations to those noted in neurodegenerative diseases hoping to gain further insight into common and unique mechanisms in the etiology of central nervous system disorders (CNS).

We are building research networks and teams at a national level that include clinicians, biochemists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, statisticians among other researchers to meet our goals stated above. We are moving beyond physical space boundaries and strongly believe in the vision for research and teams of the future as articulated under NIH roadmap. If you are interested to learn more about what we do please contact Dr. Kaddurah-Daouk.

Faculty

Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor  
Tel:617-621-1516
Fax: 617-621-1510
Email: kaddu001@mc.duke.edu

Dr. Kaddurah Daouk received her education in biochemistry at the American University of Beirut and subsequently trained in molecular biology at the Johns Hopkins Medical School where she worked with Nobel Laureate Dr . Hamilton Smith on mechanism of protein-DNA recognition. Subsequent training and research at the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology enabled her to combine biochemical and biological approaches that led to the identification of genes and pathways possibly implicated in cancer Biology and neuronal cell survival. She has authored key papers around the concept of energy impairment in disease and has over forty patents and patent applications around her findings. These discoveries enabled the establishment of two biotechnology companies that moved the research from the bench to the clinic.

Dr. Kaddurah-Daouk is one of the pioneers in the field of metabolomics and plays a leading role in its development. She established the Metabolomics Society and serves as its first president. She also co-founded one of the leading biotechnology companies in the field of metabolomics and is establishing a National Metabolomics Research Network. She is actively involved in organizing meetings and workshops in the field of metabolomics nationally and internationally. She recently joined the faculty at Duke University Medical Center department of psychiatry where she is building several programs that bridge genetic and biochemical global -omics approaches to bring a deeper understanding of pathways implicated in disease and in drug response.