Carol Tamminga


Carol A. Tamminga is an American psychiatrist and neuroscientist, focusing in treating psychotic illnesses, such as schizophrenia, psychotic bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder, currently the Lou and Ellen McGinley Distinguished Chair in Psychiatric Research at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and is an Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine. She serves on the advisory boards of the Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation and of the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2011 she was awarded the Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research. Tamminga led a study examining whether giving Prozac to fetuses with Down syndrome would improve the functioning of their brains. In her attempt to confirm psychiatric diagnoses biologically, she found "biotypes" or "clusters." Her current research involves mechanisms underlying schizophrenia, especially its most prominent symptoms, psychosis and memory dysfunction.