Autism Speaks honors Scripps Research scientist with Weatherstone Fellowship

Fellowship will fund study of neuron development in genetic form of the disease

Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism science and advocacy group, has awarded a two-year Dennis Weatherstone Pre-Doctoral Fellowship to Kristopher Nazor of The Scripps Research Institute.

Nazor is one of eight fellows selected from a field of 50 highly qualified candidates. Projects were chosen for funding based on the strengths of the training plan, research strategy, mentor's qualifications, and the relevance of the topic to Autism Speaks' research priority areas.

Nazor, who joined the Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science and Technology in 2008, is working toward his PhD degree under Professor Jeanne Loring, an authority in the emerging field of stem cell research.

"We're very excited about Kit's study because it will give us ideas about new ways to treat autism syndrome disorders," Loring said. "He will be using pluripotent stem cell technology to understand how neural development is affected in a genetic form of autism, Fragile X Syndrome."

Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that inhibits a person's ability to communicate and develop social relationships. According to Autism Speaks, autism disorders are diagnosed in one in 110 children in the United States, and one in 70 boys.

Autism Speaks established the Weatherstone Fellowships in 2008, thanks to a multi-year grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, to encourage the most promising young scientists to establish autism research as their chosen career path and support the growth of a promising cadre of young autism scientists. The fellowships are named in honor of former J.P. Morgan CEO Sir Dennis Weatherstone.

"I want to thank both Austism Speaks and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for their generosity," Nazor said. "With their help, we will be using a systematic, data-intensive approach to identify the molecular aberrations that occur not only in Fragile X neurons themselves, but also in the precursor cells that give rise to these neurons. This will allow us to compare autism-affected and normal neuro-developmental processes, and, hopefully, to better understand what leads to the onset of this devastating disease."

In 2009, Nazor was part of a Scripps Research team that successfully reprogrammed skin cells from adult mice to perform like embryonic stem cells, the basic cells from which all others develop, without using embryonic stem cells or cloning techniques that require eggs. The milestone research, which was published in the prestigious journal Nature, has opened the door to the development of novel therapeutic approaches, such as using a patient's own cells to grow replacement organs.

Source: Scripps Research Institute