New genetic hypothesis for the cause of autism
Researchers have proposed a new hypothesis on the cause of autism, suggesting a mixed epigenetic and genetic and mixed de novo and inherited (MEGDI) model. Their hypothesis, and evidence to support it, will be published September 8, 2004 in the online edition of the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, and will be available via Wiley InterScience at . ... ...The role of genetics in autis...Thimerosal, found in childhood vaccines, can increase the risk of autism-like damage in mice
A new study indicates that postnatal exposure to thimerosal, a mercury preservative commonly used in a number of childhood vaccines, can lead to the development of autism-like damage in autoimmune disease susceptible mice. This animal model, the first to show that the administration of low-dose ethylmercury can lead to behavioral and neurological changes in the developing brain, reinforces previ...Why some diabetics are at greater risk for UTIs
NEW ORLEANS May 25, 2004 -- Researchers at Midwestern University may have solved the mystery as to why some diabetics are at greater risk for getting urinary tract infections (UTI). They report their findings at the 104th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.... ..."Patients with type-2 diabetes and females with gestational diabetes are at higher risk for acquiring urinary...Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine are first to strongly link a specific gene with autism. While earlier studies have found rare genetic mutations in single families, a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry is the first to identify a gene that increases susceptibility to autism in a broad population....... Approximately 1 in 1,000 people have autism o...New study suggests brains of autistic children can be trained to recognize faces
SEATTLE, WA--Individuals with autism have been shown to have a difficult time recognizing faces, but two University of Washington researchers now suggest that the problem may be due to a lack of practice, rather than to abnormal functioning of the affected region of the brain. ... ...Previous research, using an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brain activity, had shown that autistic 3- and 4...Special training may help people with autism recognize faces
Scientists trying to understand and treat autism have discovered that the brains of people with autism function differently than those of normal people when they view pictures of unfamiliar people. However, when people with autism look at a picture of a very familiar face, such as their mother's, their brain activity is similar to that of control subjects. ... The new study indicates that in peo...Vanderbilt researchers receive fellowships to support early identification, genetic causes of autism
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Two Vanderbilt Kennedy Center investigators have been awarded mentor-based fellowships by the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) to advance the study of autism....... Wendy Stone, professor of pediatrics, received a NAAR post-doctoral fellowship for researcher Lynnette Henderson to develop a downward age extension of Stone's Screening Tool for Autism in Two-year-olds...A national conference focusing on the Federal government's role in biomedical autism research, early screening and diagnosis, and improving access to autism services will be held November 19-20, 2003, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. The summit will provide a public forum to disseminate, evaluate, and integrate the latest science-based autism information among Federal, acad...Rutgers geneticist to battle autism with $3.7 million NIH grant
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. Linda Brzustowicz, an associate professor in Rutgers' department of genetics, has been awarded a five-year, $3.7 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to investigate the genetic basis of autism. The disorder, which has no known cure, is tied to a child's early brain development and is usually diagnosed in the first three years of life. The grant was...NIH awards grants for six new autism research centers
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants to support six new research centers of a major network focusing on the biomedical and behavioral aspects of autism. These centers will join two that were funded last year. The overall initiative, called STAART (Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment) Centers Program, demonstrates NIH commitment to autism research and responds t...New genetic 'fishing net' harvests elusive autism gene
... ... .........DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University Medical Center researchers have developed a new statistical genetic "fishing net" that they have cast into a sea of complex genetic data on autistic children to harvest an elusive autism gene. ... ...Moreover, the researchers said that the success of the approach will be broadly applicable to studying genetic risk factors for other complex genet...UC Davis to begin identifying eligible families for study on environmental factors in autism
(SACRAMENTO, CALIF.) -- UC Davis researchers are ready to launch the first-ever major epidemiological case-control study of up to 2,000 California children to examine genetic and environmental factors that may affect the development of autism, mental retardation and developmental delay in children. ......Parents of children who recently have become eligible to receive services from California's R...Natural or synthetic secretin does not reduce symptoms of autism, study shows
Secretin, touted as a possible cure for autism just three years ago, is not a magic bullet that relieves the symptoms of the developmental disorder, report researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.... Their study, which involved the largest and most-comprehensive trials of the hormone yet conducted, is published in the November issue of Jou...Families with two or more children with autism sought for $10.2 million study
Researchers have launched a hunt in Washington and 15 other states for 250 families with two or more autistic children to participate in a $10.2 million University of Washington study to uncover the genetic and neurobiological causes of autism. ... The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National Institutes of Health, is funding the study, which is also designed...Cranberry may offer protection against antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause UTIs
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ Public health officials concerned about the rising problem of antibiotic resistance the immunity that bacteria develop to common prescriptions may have an ally in a common household beverage. Findings published in a research letter to the editor in the June 19, 2002 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicate scientists have discovered that regul...ARTICLE: "Small intestinal enteropathy with epithelial IgG and complement deposition in children with regressive autism... ...AUTHORS: F Torrente, P Ashwood, R Day, N Machado, RI Furlano, A Anthony, SE Davies, AJ Wakefield, MA Thompson, JA Walker-Smith and SH Murch... ...Centre for Paediatric Gastroenterology, with the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, Royal Free & University College Medic...Fox Chase Cancer Center receives grant to study possible link between measles vaccine and autism
PHILADELPHIA -- Glenn F. Rall, PhD, a member and noted scientist at Fox Chase Cancer Center has been awarded $189,000 from the M.I.N.D. Institute at U.C. Davis in California to study whether a link exists between the measles vaccine and the development of autism. ... Few believe that the vaccine directly causes a child to develop autism, Rall says. However, we have an obligation as scientists...Progress in the genetics of autism
ARTICLES... ...1) "Transmission disequilibrium mapping at the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) region in autistic disorder... ...AUTHORS: S-J Kim, N Cox, R Courchesne, C Lord, C Corsello, N Akshoomoff, S Guter, BL Leventhal, E Courchesne and EH Cook Jr.... ...Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry MC3077, University of Chicago, Chic...$6 million grant to expand search for autism genes
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) today awarded the first installment of an expected $6 million grant over 5 years to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for major expansion of a collaborative effort to identify autism vulnerability genes. ... Daniel Geschwind, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute will direct the project, in par...Fundamental structural differences discovered in brains of autistic individuals
Autistic individuals have a fundamental structural difference in the alignment and wiring of their brain cells, a difference that explains these individuals' proclivity to live in their own world, according to researchers. ... "The fundamental structure by which they think and process information is different," said Dr. Manuel F. Casanova, neurologist and neuropathologist at the Medical College...Major stress during pregnancy linked to autism
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Women who have had a major stressful... event - death of a spouse, job loss, or a long-distance move -... midway through their pregnancy may have a greater chance of... having an autistic child than do their unstressed counterparts say... researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center.... ......(SAN DIEGO, CALIF.) As a part of the inaugural International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) conference, four prominent autism scientists will identify the current level of understanding in the areas of genetics, neuroscience, the incidences (or epidemiological trends) and diagnosis of autism and present a look at where the fields are headed. ... IMFAR will hold its first conference on Nov....First-ever autism research conference to explore new frontiers
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- In a move that reflects the emergence of autism to the center stage of the scientific community, the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) will promote communication and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among scientists researching the disorder. The inaugural forum will be held on November 9-10, 2001 in San Diego, California, as a satellite event of the...Brain gene implicated in autism
. . . Scientists funded by the National Institute of Mental Health have linked a gene that may influence human brain development with autism susceptibility. They pinpointed the candidate gene, WNT2, in a region of chromosome 7 suggested by several studies over the past few years. NIMH grantees Thomas Wassink, M.D., University of Iowa, and Joseph Piven, M.D., University of North Carolina, and co...Blood markers associated with autism and mental retardation
.A new study shows that elevated concentrations of proteins present at birth in the blood may be associated with the development of autism and mental retardation later in childhood. The identification of a biological marker early in life and before the onset of symptoms could lead to earlier and more definitive diagnoses, better clinical definitions, and the discovery of interventional therapie...Conference focuses on adults living with autism
Experts, parents, and adults living with autism to explore the frontiers of. daily life . . . WHAT: . Special education experts and researchers from San Francisco State. University and the UC Davis MIND Institute join forces with over 150. parents from Sacramento and the Bay Area and with adults diagnosed with. Asperger's Syndrome to educate the community about this formof high. functi...Brain damage in autism: not what scientists once thought
. . . Deepening the mystery of autism's origins, a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study has failed to link the typical autistic child's fixation on spinning objects and constant whirling around to long-suspected damage to the brain's control center for movement, balance and equilibrium.. . Reporting in the December 2000 issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disor...(SACRAMENTO, Calif.)-- The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute is allocating $1 million to develop a new neurodevelopmental genomics laboratory for the study of biomarkers and other early warning signs of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. (M.I.N.D. stands for the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.) Using the power of the human genome project, the lab aims to identify a genetic...Researchers identify gene common to many autism cases
...Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a gene that may predispose people to developing autism. The gene, known as HOXA1, plays a crucial role in early brain development. The study was conducted by a research team in NIH's Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism and was published in the December issue of Teratology. ..."These findings strongly suggest t....Researchers at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago.have shown that some children suffering from autism may experience short-term.but dramatic improvement during treatment with appropriate antibiotics. The.study was published in the July issue of the Journal of Child Neurology..The researchers report that when a subset of patients whose autism may.involve colonization of the b...New studies suggest that autism and language development could be linked
.In the August issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, two studies localize autism and developmental language disorder to the same position in the human genome. Autism is a disorder characterized by impaired social interactions. In contrast, children with developmental language disorder have problems with pronunciation, grammar, and verbal communication. Researchers have sometimes fo....Yale researchers have for the first time used functional MRI to study brain organization in persons with autism and Asperger Syndrome and found that they perceive faces as if they were objects.. "This may be a result of a lifelong disinterest in people, and a failure to develop normal expertise for faces," said Robert Schultz, the study's principal investigator and director of the Neuroimaging.... CHAPEL HILL -- Parents will go to great lengths to help children with illnesses, including trying. the latest well-publicized treatments regardless of whether they've been proven effective. But if a. therapy sounds too good to be true, it usually is.. . A new study appearing in the Dec. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine offers a prime. example. Contrary to what early publicity....CHAPEL HILL - Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and collaborating institutions are reporting evidence for a possible gene on chromosome 13 that causes autism..The group's report will be published December 15 in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. . .Autism is considered a severe neuro-developmental disorder defined by social and communication deficits and ritu...