Carolyn I. Rodriguez facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Carolyn Rodriguez
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Rodriguez speaks at the World Economic Forum in 2019
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| Born | c. 1981 (age 43–44) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Known for | Discovering therapeutic potential of Ketamine in treating OCD |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience, psychiatry |
| Institutions | Stanford University |
Carolyn I. Rodriguez is a scientist from Puerto Rico. She is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Dr. Rodriguez works on finding new ways to treat Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). She also studies how the brain works.
Dr. Rodriguez teaches and does research at Stanford University. She leads a lab that studies the brain. She is also a director of special research programs.
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Early Life and Education
Dr. Rodriguez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She moved to Boston for college. She studied Computer Science at Harvard University.
After college, she continued her studies in Boston. She joined a special program at Harvard and MIT. There, she earned both her medical degree (MD) and a PhD in Neuroscience. For her PhD, she worked with Susan Dymecki. Dr. Rodriguez created a new way to map how brain cells develop. This tool is now used by many other scientists.
Discovering a Passion for Helping Others
Later, Dr. Rodriguez moved to New York City. She completed her medical training at Columbia University Medical Center. She trained in both pediatrics (children's medicine) and psychiatry (mental health).
During her training, she became very interested in Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). She saw how difficult OCD was for patients. She also noticed that treatments took a long time to work. This made her want to find faster and better ways to help people with OCD.
Dr. Rodriguez then did more training at Columbia. She studied a medicine called Ketamine. She explored how it could quickly help people with OCD. In 2015, she joined Stanford University.
Developing Tools to Map the Brain
During her graduate studies, Dr. Rodriguez wanted to understand how certain brain cells develop. These cells are part of the precerebellar system. To do this, she needed a special tool.
She created a genetic tool using something called "flip-recombinase." This tool allowed her to permanently mark cells. She could then see where these cells came from. Using her tool, she found that these brain cells came from a specific part of the brain.
She later made her tool even better. This improved tool, called FLPe, worked much more effectively. Her work helped scientists understand how different brain cells form. Her findings were published in a science journal in 2000. Many researchers still use her methods today.
Understanding and Treating OCD
Dr. Rodriguez has done important research on OCD. She also studies hoarding disorder. She published a study about a person with both OCD and another condition. She showed that certain medicines could help treat OCD.
She and her team also tested a medicine called minocycline. They wanted to see if it could help with OCD symptoms. They found that it might help young people with OCD. It also seemed to improve symptoms of hoarding. These results suggested that more studies were needed.
In 2015, Dr. Rodriguez published a very important paper. It showed that Ketamine could help treat OCD. Patients had fewer obsessions for more than a week. This was the first study to show that changing certain brain signals could have fast and lasting effects for people with OCD.
Dr. Rodriguez also found that hoarding disorder was common in New York City. She saw that treating hoarding could help prevent homelessness. She then started looking for new ways to treat hoarding disorder.
Career and Research at Stanford
In 2015, Dr. Rodriguez became a professor at Stanford University. She joined the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She also became part of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.
At Stanford, Dr. Rodriguez directs several research programs. These include the Stanford Hoarding Disorders Research Program. She also leads the Translational OCD Research Program. Her lab, called the Rodriguez Lab, studies how the brain controls emotions and behavior. Their goal is to find fast-acting treatments for mental illnesses.
Her lab focuses on discovering new medicines. They also conduct clinical trials. These trials test how well new treatments work in people. The main conditions they study are OCD, Hoarding Disorder, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Dr. Rodriguez also helps veterans with their mental health. In 2018, she was promoted at Stanford Medical School. She became the Associate Chair of Inclusion and Diversity. She also became the Clinical Lab Director at the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging.
How Ketamine Helps with OCD
After her work at Columbia, Dr. Rodriguez continued to study Ketamine at Stanford. She wanted to understand how it helped people with OCD. She also wanted to make its effects even better.
Dr. Rodriguez and her team used special brain scans. They found that people treated with Ketamine had higher levels of a brain chemical called GABA. This finding supported the idea that people with OCD might have lower GABA activity. This showed a new way Ketamine might work in the brain.
Ketamine helped with OCD symptoms, but it could also cause side effects like nausea. So, Dr. Rodriguez looked for other medicines. She found that a medicine called Rapastinel also helped with OCD. It had fewer side effects than Ketamine. However, its effects did not last as long. This means more research is needed to find the best long-lasting treatments.
Her team also studied how Ketamine works to reduce its side effects. They found that certain brain signals play a role in how Ketamine helps with mood.
Advocacy and Outreach
Dr. Rodriguez is a strong supporter of diversity in science and medicine. She was a leader in a task force for underrepresented minorities in neuropsychopharmacology.
She has also written articles about the challenges women face in medicine. She believes that having more diverse people in science leads to new ideas. She suggests simple steps to help more women get leadership roles in medicine and academics.
As a writer for the Huffington Post, Dr. Rodriguez helps teach the public about research. She explains how people can get involved in finding cures for mental illnesses like OCD. Her writing also helps people understand the progress of Ketamine research for mental health.
Awards and Honors
- 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
- 2018 Chairman's Annual Award for Excellence Across Multiple Missions – Stanford Medical School
- 2017 Eva King Killam Research Award for Outstanding Translational Research Contributions – ACNP
- 2017 A.E. Bennett Research Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical/Translational Research – Society for Biological Psychiatry
- 2017 Gerald R. Klerman Award Honorable Mention for outstanding clinical research achievement – Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
- 2015 Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- 2014 Neuropsychopharmacology Editor's Award for Transformative Original Report (NEATOR) Award, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
- 2014 Robins/Guze Award, American Psychopathological Association
- 2009 and 2014 Young Investigator Award from Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
Images for kids
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Dr. Rodriguez speaking at the World Economic Forum.
