Robert Smith M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Chair
Research Director of the Neurosciences Institute in the College of Medicine & Life
Sciences
Office: 179 Block Health Science Building
Tel: 205-789-0841
Lab:
Email: Robert.McCullumsmith@utoledo.edu
Education:
1990: B.S. Biochemistry, Indiana University
1997: MD, PhD, University of Michigan
2002: Research Track Psychiatry Residency, University of Michigan Hospitals
Cognitive Disorders Research Laboratory
Research Interests:
The Cognitive Disorders Research Laboratory (CDRL) is focused on asking and answering
the largest possible questions in translational neuroscience. We combine proteomic,
kinomic, and mechanistic approaches to study severe neuropsychiatric illnesses including
schizophrenia, depression and autism spectrum disorders. Our recent work includes
establishing bioenergetic dysfunction as a consequence of developing a brain with
broken synapses. In a ground breaking series of experiments, we started with observations
from postmortem brain samples, identified drugs using a novel bioinformatics work
flow, and reversed cognitive defects in an animal model of cognitive dysfunction with
a repurposed FDA approved drug.