RESEARCH
The Foundation is proud to financially support the many projects, people, and organizations serving the intellectually and developmentally disabled of our region.
FCIDD McNulty Scientist Award
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Since 2005 the FCIDD has awarded scientific research grants through the Civitan International Research Center at UAB in fields related to I/DD. Originally, this award was given as a one-time grant ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 per award for research and clinical activities including Alzheimers, Autism, Brain Tumors, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Rett Syndrome, Schizophrenia, Spinal Cord and Traumatic Brain Injury among others. After reviewing the program, it was determined that outcomes would be better served through three-year grants awarded to interdisciplinary teams, resulting in $225,000 being awarded annually.
Several of these scientists are featured below.
CIRC is an internationally recognized leader in research, training and clinical care for people with neurodevelopmental​ and other brain disorders. ​
Dr. Craig Powell,​ Director​
​Civitan International Research Center
​Craig Powell, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the Civitan International Research Center. Dr. Powell is an international leader in research pertaining to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and intellectual disability. He earned both his Ph.D. in Neuroscience and M.D. with Honors at Baylor College of Medicine. ​
His graduate work was among the first to measure lasting biochemical changes during long-lasting synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Dr. Powell relocated to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he was named director of the Civitan International Research Center.
Dr. Sarah O'Kelly, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Director of the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Clinic
Research Interests: Cognitive and behavioral phenotypes of children and adults with ASD, ASD treatment-outcome, family functioning in ASD and other developmental disabilities, screening and interdisciplinary diagnosis of ASD in at-risk populations
Farah Lubin, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Director, NINDS Neuroscience Roadmap Scholars Program
Co-Director for Research, IRACDA-MERIT Program
Co-Chair, SoM Black/African-American Faculty Association
Research Areas
Learning, memory and synaptic plasticity; epigenetics, non-coding RNAs; gene transcription; epilepsy disorders; neurodevelopment and developmental disabilities
Kristina Visscher, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Co-director, Neuroimaging Laboratory
Research Areas
Cognitive neuroscience by studying human behavior and brain activity using precise behavioral measurements (including psychophysics and tracking of eye movements), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG).
Dr. Summer Thyme
Dr. Thyme is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. Her primary research goal is to uncover the molecular basis of complex neurodevelopmental disorders and ultimately create therapies. She has a broad background in biochemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, and computational techniques. As a Ph.D. student with Dr. David Baker, she engineered biomolecular interactions, providing the foundation and skills for her long-term goals of developing new therapeutics for these disorders. As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Alexander Schier, she studied the genes involved in complex neuropsychiatric disorders, generating over a hundred zebrafish mutants for schizophrenia-associated genes and assessing their brain activity, brain structure, and behavior. With this tour-de-force project, she became a leader in the field of zebrafish studies of neurodevelopmental disorders. Such models form the basis for identifying targets for rational drug discovery and phenotypes for unbiased drug screens.
Exciting details from Dr. Brandon Rocque about his research as the 2021 McNulty Scientist Award recipient.