Posted on February 20, 2007 at 1:10 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Dr. James H. Meador-Woodruff, M.D., Heman E. Drummond professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) has received the 2007 Kempf Fund Award for research development in psychobiological psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE). The 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.

Meador-Woodruff is mentor to Robert E. McCullumsmith, M.D., Ph.D., who joined the UAB faculty along with Meador-Woodruff from the University of Michigan in 2006. The award will provide funding to support development of McCullumsmith’s research career while working in a mentor-trainee relationship with Meador-Woodruff.

Meador-Woodruff is known for his research in the neurochemical circuitry and gene expression of schizophrenia -- how different areas of the brain communicate with each other, and the role played in this by the expression of genes associated with signal transduction mediated by the neurotransmitters glutamate, dopamine and serotonin, within individual cells in the nervous system.

McCullumsmith’s research focus is examining the expression and function of glutamate transporters in corticothalamic circuitry in schizophrenia. His clinical interests include personality disorders, treatment refractory conditions and the somatoform disorders. He is also the attending physician for new faculty consultation clinics, which provide outpatient treatment by psychiatry resident physicians.