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| Carolyn Beebe Smith, Ph.D., Senior Investigator |
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Dr. Smith received a Ph.D. from the University of London where she studied the chemical pathology of Alzheimer�s Disease with David Bowen, for which she was awarded the Queen Square Prize. She did postdoctoral training with Louis Sokoloff at NIMH and in 1986 became a Senior Investigator within the Laboratory of Cerebral Metabolism, NIMH. In 2000 Dr. Smith was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Link�ping for her work developing an in vivo quantitative autoradiographic method for regional rates of cerebral protein synthesis in experimental animals. Dr Smith�s group is currently studying the mechanisms of brain dysfunction in genetic mouse models of inherited forms of mental retardation.
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Staff:
Research Interests:
The purpose of the Unit on Neurobiology is to investigate the causes of hereditary mental retardation, with the goal of developing effective treatments for these disorders and furthering our understanding of the molecular bases of learning and memory. Particular areas of interest include phenylketonuria (a disease of phenylalanine metabolism) and fragile X syndrome (a CGG repeat disease in which the synthesis of a specific protein is suppressed). Mechanisms underlying behavioral impairments are studied in genetic mouse models of the diseases. One of the tools used in these investigations is a quantitative autoradiographic method developed by our group for the in vivo measurement of regional rates of cerebral protein synthesis. Another research goal of our group is the adaptation and validation of this method for use in man with positron emission tomography. We expect that this method will be an invaluable clinical tool for diagnosis and assessment of efficacy of treatments in developmental and degenerative disorders of the nervous system.
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Selected Recent Publications:
All Selected Publications
Contact Information:
Dr. Carolyn Beebe Smith
Neurobiology Unit
Laboratory on Cerebral Metabolism, NIMH
Building 35, Room 2B1016
35 Convent Drive MSC 3702
Bethesda, MD 20892-3702
Telephone: (301) 402-3120 (office),
(301) 480-1668 (fax)
Email: beebe@shiloh.nimh.nih.gov
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