Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Researchers receive two grants to create diagnostic tool for early detection of childhood mental disorders

A University of Minnesota research team was recently awarded two grants totaling more than $3 million from the National Science Foundation's Cyber-Enabled Discovery and MRI Programs to create robotic devices and computer vision algorithms that will assist with the early diagnosis of children at risk of developing disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

17 Feb 2011

New study: Latino siblings of children with disability may face risk of negative outcomes

Latino siblings of children developmental disabilities such as Down syndrome and autism may face their own challenges, including anxiety and lower school performance, according to a new study led by researchers with the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center.

17 Feb 2011

Molecular explanation to higher tendency for autism among males

George Washington University researcher, Dr. Valerie Hu, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and her team at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, have found that male and female sex hormones regulate expression of an important gene in neuronal cell culture through a mechanism that could explain not only higher levels of testosterone observed in some individuals with autism, but also why males have a higher incidence of autism than females.

17 Feb 2011

Rare heart defect reproduced in petri dish, hope for cure

U.S. researchers have created beating heart cells in the lab with the same heart defect using skin cells taken from children with a rare heart defect. This means they can now test new drugs in human cells instead of mice.

13 Feb 2011

Virtual desktop technology integrated into autism programs

“We were fortunate to have the team at Touchstone's Family-Centered Autism Program evaluate Andrew, identify where he was on the autism spectrum, and reach him by building trust and providing a safe place to learn social skills.”

11 Feb 2011

Study unveils surprising mechanism that controls brain formation

A study from The Scripps Research Institute has unveiled a surprising mechanism that controls brain formation. The findings have implications for understanding a host of diseases, including some forms of mental retardation, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism.

10 Feb 2011

Scientists generate beating heart cells from skin cells of young patients with severe genetic heart defect

Using skin cells from young patients who have a severe genetic heart defect, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have generated beating heart cells that carry the same genetic mutation. The newly created human heart cells - cardiomyocytes - allowed the researchers for the first time to examine and characterize the disorder at the cellular level.

10 Feb 2011

Johns Hopkins funds 12 research groups to launch new BSi program on cognitive disorders

The Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute has funded a total of $5 million to 12 different research groups at Hopkins to launch the new Synapses, Circuits and Cognitive Disorders Program. The new BSi program aims to understand the fundamentals of brain function by focusing on the synapse — the point of contact between two nerve cells — to better understand cognitive disorders.

9 Feb 2011

New study: Testosterone administration leads to significant reduction in mind reading

A new study from Utrecht and Cambridge Universities has for the first time found that an administration of testosterone under the tongue in volunteers negatively affects a person's ability to 'mind read', an indication of empathy. The findings are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

9 Feb 2011

No effort for ensuring continuity of supports and services as ASD children age into adulthood: Study

What happens to young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) once they graduate high school and are no longer entitled to services?

9 Feb 2011

Service disengagement rates are high in youths with autism spectrum disorder after high school

Use of medical, mental health and case management services for young adults with an autism spectrum disorder appears to decline after high school, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

8 Feb 2011

State Roundup: Setting up health insurance exchanges; Community-based clinics cuts; Autism legislation; End-of-life care

The board of the Health Benefit Exchange is going to be small and mighty. ... This exchange will concentrate the health insurance buying power of millions of Californians, and will be the central force in implementing national health care reform in California (Gorn, 2/4).

7 Feb 2011

Viewpoints: (Still) Debating health law's constitutionality; Food labels; Lawmakers' abortion divide

For state governments, the bill presents huge new costs, as we are required to enroll 15 million to 20 million more people in our Medicaid systems. ... Perhaps worse, the law expects to conscript the states as its agents in its takeover of health care. It assumes that we will set up and operate its new insurance "exchanges" for it (Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, 2/7).

7 Feb 2011

First Edition: February 7, 2011

Today's headlines focus on how states face major budget challenges -- with health policy at the heart of the issue.

7 Feb 2011

Researchers find RIPs remain active, continue to produce new insertions in human genome

An ambitious hunt by Johns Hopkins scientists for actively "jumping genes" in humans has yielded compelling new evidence that the genome, anything but static, contains numerous pesky mobile elements that may help to explain why people have such a variety of physical traits and disease risks.

5 Feb 2011

Virginia Autism Project applauds House for historic bill requiring insurers to cover autism for children

Parents of autistic children throughout Virginia cleared a major hurdle today when the House of Delegates voted 74-24 to require insurers to provide autism coverage for children ages 2-6. The Virginia Autism Project applauds the House for its historic vote, which may signal then end of a more than decade-long fight for autism coverage in the commonwealth.

3 Feb 2011

International scientist team identifies gene mutation strongly linked to schizophrenia

In a major advance for schizophrenia research, an international team of scientists, led by Jonathan Sebat, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has identified a gene mutation strongly linked to the brain disorder - and a signaling pathway that may be treatable with existing compounds.

3 Feb 2011

Connectome remains dynamic during development, says Scripps Research

Connected highways of nerve cells carry information to and from different areas of the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Scientists are trying to draw a complete atlas of these connections-sometimes referred to as the "connectome"-to gain a better understanding of how the brain functions in health and disease.

28 Jan 2011

Rethink Autism to offer free web-based program for parents and teachers

An estimated 637,000 children ages 3-17 in the U.S. had a current Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis in 2007 according to a widely accepted study published in Pediatrics. That represents a 67% increase from a previous estimate by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which reported autism rates of 66 per 10,000 children in 2002.

27 Jan 2011

Scientists discover new mechanism neurons use to fine-tune electrical output

Scientists in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, have discovered a new mechanism that nerve cells (neurons) use to fine-tune their electrical output. The exciting discovery, published this week in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience, provides new insights about how the activity of the nervous system is regulated at the cellular level.

27 Jan 2011

Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Researchers receive two grants to create diagnostic tool for early detection of childhood mental disorders

New study: Latino siblings of children with disability may face risk of negative outcomes

Molecular explanation to higher tendency for autism among males

Rare heart defect reproduced in petri dish, hope for cure

Virtual desktop technology integrated into autism programs

Study unveils surprising mechanism that controls brain formation

Scientists generate beating heart cells from skin cells of young patients with severe genetic heart defect

Johns Hopkins funds 12 research groups to launch new BSi program on cognitive disorders

New study: Testosterone administration leads to significant reduction in mind reading

No effort for ensuring continuity of supports and services as ASD children age into adulthood: Study

Service disengagement rates are high in youths with autism spectrum disorder after high school

State Roundup: Setting up health insurance exchanges; Community-based clinics cuts; Autism legislation; End-of-life care

Viewpoints: (Still) Debating health law's constitutionality; Food labels; Lawmakers' abortion divide

First Edition: February 7, 2011

Researchers find RIPs remain active, continue to produce new insertions in human genome

Virginia Autism Project applauds House for historic bill requiring insurers to cover autism for children

International scientist team identifies gene mutation strongly linked to schizophrenia

Connectome remains dynamic during development, says Scripps Research

Rethink Autism to offer free web-based program for parents and teachers

Scientists discover new mechanism neurons use to fine-tune electrical output

Discover how SciY empowers scientists

Why use light scattering to analyze proteins and viral vectors?

Changing the landscape of R&D to build clinical success from the ground up

Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Discover how SciY empowers scientists

Why use light scattering to analyze proteins and viral vectors?

Changing the landscape of R&D to build clinical success from the ground up

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