Kaddurah-Daouk named inaugural chair of Precision Behavioral Health
Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, PhD, chair of the Department of Precision Behavioral Health at UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences (Photo by UTHealth Houston)
Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, PhD, has been named the inaugural chair of the Department of Precision Behavioral Health, the first department established at the UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences, the university’s newest school.
Kaddurah-Daouk has spent her career transforming how scientists understand brain health and disease. She is a globally recognized leader in precision medicine, metabolomics, and big data integration along with informatics tools for defining individual disease trajectories and shifts in health in real time. A highly funded researcher in psychiatry and related neurodegenerative diseases, her work examines the brain not in isolation, but as part of a complex, interconnected system influenced by the genome, the metabolome, the gut microbiome, diet, lifestyle, and socioeconomic factors.
At UTHealth Houston, Kaddurah-Daouk will lead the Department of Precision Behavioral Health while also serving as the lead for the forthcoming Center for Proactive Health and Body-Brain Connections, a new interdisciplinary center that will advance whole-person health through the study of body-brain connections. These efforts will bring together more than 120 scientists from more than 30 academic institutions around the world, creating a global, collaborative effort to advance precision behavioral health and answer questions about brain health that no single field can solve alone.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity to rethink how we approach brain health,” Kaddurah-Daouk said. “We are redefining brain health by treating the brain as an interconnected part of the whole body that responds to both internal biology and external environments. Just as we actively safeguard the heart against cardiovascular disease, we aim to be equally proactive in protecting the brain.”
Kaddurah-Daouk begins her tenure at UTHealth Houston by bringing more than $80 million in grant funding across several projects. Her research will include studying complexity and heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s disease, the role of chemical exposures in Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s-related dementias, evaluating metabolic changes in brain aging, and examining differences in male and female mitochondrial energetics and their relationship to mechanisms of resilience and susceptibility for cognitive decline. She will also be investigating the role that the gut microbiome plays in Alzheimer’s disease progression and related neuropsychiatric diseases, as well as approaches to tackle modifiable factors of disease, including diet and lifestyle changes. The latter project is a collaboration with more than a dozen health institutions across the globe.
With Kaddurah-Daouk at the helm, the department’s work will place big data, artificial intelligence, and real-time analytics at the center of efforts to understand the complex connections between the brain and the rest of the body and translate those discoveries into knowledge and actionable tools that can ultimately benefit patients.
“By harnessing big data, real-time analytics, and AI, we can optimize overall wellness before illness takes hold,” Kaddurah-Daouk said. “Our mission within the Department of Precision Behavioral Health is to empower every patient with the knowledge and actionable steps they need to take ownership of their health and to delay disease or progression.”
For UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences, her appointment represents an important step in building a school around the science of the future.
“We are proud to welcome Dr. Kaddurah-Daouk to UTHealth Houston and to this historic role,” said Jair C. Soares, MD, PhD, dean of the School of Behavioral Health Sciences. “She is a visionary leader whose work has transformed the field. As the inaugural chair of our first department, she will play a critical role in shaping the future of behavioral health sciences at our institution and beyond.”
Faculty in the Department of Precision Behavioral Health will build on Kaddurah-Daouk’s work by investigating factors that shape behavioral and brain health, with research spanning mood and anxiety disorders, neurodevelopmental conditions, cognitive aging, and severe mental illness. The department will emphasize not only discovery but translation, moving what is learned through research toward tools, knowledge, and interventions that people and their health care providers can use.
“This department is not just about advancing science, it’s about changing lives,” Kaddurah-Daouk said. “We are building a future where care is tailored, proactive, and deeply informed by each person’s biology, environment, and lived experience.”
The department will also serve as a hub for training the next generation of scientists, clinicians, and innovators, preparing them to work at the intersection of behavioral health, technology, and precision medicine.
The Department of Precision Behavioral Health establishes a foundation for a new generation of behavioral health research, one that connects discovery with action, data with understanding, and science with the people it is ultimately meant to serve.
Before joining UTHealth Houston, Kaddurah-Daouk spent more than 15 years at Duke University, where she served as a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Medicine. She received a PhD in biochemistry from the American University of Beirut and trained at Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
