The Richard Tam Foundation has funded 2 Professorships to support the growth of translational research capacity of the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program and will honor the legacy of Judy Tam and the Richard Tam Foundation and their commitment to improving the understanding, research, and treatment of bipolar disorder.
The Richard Tam Bipolar and Circadian Research Professorship. The professorship will be used to support the research work of an outstanding investigator in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry who is advancing knowledge about the role of circadian rhythms for people with bipolar disorder.
The Department of Psychiatry nominated, and the Regents have approved, Helen J. Burgess, Ph.D. as the inaugural Richard Tam Bipolar and Circadian Research Professor. Dr. Burgess is currently full Professor with tenure and as Co-Director of the Sleep and Circadian Research Laboratory. She is internationally renowned for her work in the impact of sleep and circadian rhythm regulation, including how dysregulation of these processes appears in psychiatric conditions. At the invitation of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Dr. Burgess assisted in formulating the latest clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders with light therapy and melatonin. She has also made multiple invited presentations at the National Institutes of Health, and was recently invited to presented her research to NASA. Her current research focuses on the assessment and treatment of sleep and circadian disturbance in a variety of human clinical conditions including alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain conditions, HIV, inflammatory bowel disease and bipolar disorder.
The Richard Tam Early Career Professorship in Translational Bipolar Research. The professorship will support the recruitment or retention of an early career faculty member who specializes in bipolar disorder in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry.
The Department of Psychiatry nominated, and the Regents have approved, Sarah H. Sperry, Ph.D. as the inaugural Richard Tam Early Career Professor in Translational Bipolar Research. Dr. Sperry is one of the rising stars in the U-M Department of Psychiatry, with energy, passion and creativity making her a natural choice for this early career professorship. In her work, she pursues the broad mission to improve early detection, predict illness trajectory, and develop personalized interventions for bipolar spectrum disorders. Within this broader mission, she uses mobile technology (smartphones, wearable devices) and intensive longitudinal modeling to characterize and understand intraindividual variability in emotion and behavior in real-world contexts. Her innovative work around characterizing and tracking mood instability in bipolar disorder has been recently published in Nature Mental Health, and the approach she is developing may provide a novel treatment target to improve the lives of people with this devastating disorder.