Rima Fathi Kaddurah-Daouk

Rima Fathi Kaddurah-Daouk is a Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. She is also a Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. With a PhD from the American University of Beirut (1983), she has established herself as a pioneer in the field of metabolomics and its applications to neuropsychiatric disorders.

Her research spans metabolomics, pharmacometabolomics, Alzheimer's disease, depression, schizophrenia, and the gut microbiome. She has made seminal contributions to establishing metabolomics as a scientific discipline, co-founding both Metabolon Inc. (a leading biotechnology company in the field) and the Metabolomics Society. She established the Pharmacometabolomics Research Network (PMRN) with funding from NIGMS, which has grown into an established field that complements pharmacogenomics and enables precision medicine.

Dr. Kaddurah-Daouk's work has focused on scaling up biochemical knowledge to understand the molecular basis of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Her research has identified metabolic impairments in schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer's disease, and she has helped establish pharmacometabolomics as a field that determines the 'metabotype' of individuals to study drug responses. She has also made significant contributions to understanding the role of the gut microbiome in neuropsychiatric diseases.

Her extensive publication record demonstrates leadership in applying metabolomics to Alzheimer's disease research, with work through the Alzheimer's Disease Metabolomics Consortium and the AMP-AD program. Her recent publications focus on lipidomics in Alzheimer's disease, gut microbiome interactions, depression metabolomics, and dietary interventions for neurodegenerative conditions.

Dr. Kaddurah-Daouk has raised close to $20 million in research funding, primarily from NIH, and has played scientific leadership roles nationally and internationally. She has helped move basic research from bench to clinic, particularly regarding creatine kinase and energy impairment in neurodegenerative diseases.