Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Researchers to focus on abnormal fetal growth and chronic kidney disease

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University two grants totaling $3.5 million to study epigenetic changes - chemical modifications of genes caused by stress, diet or other environmental influences - and how they contribute to human diseases and biological processes.

18 Sep 2009

Medical interpreters to help limited English proficient patients

Now, the University of Missouri Institute of Public Policy, Center for Health Policy and Missouri Telehealth Network are partnering with the Language Access Metro Project (LAMP) and the Missouri Primary Care Association to provide medical interpreters to non-English-speaking patients who otherwise might not have access to live interpreters.

18 Sep 2009

NIH to fund grants for epigenetic research

The National Institutes of Health announced today that it will fund 22 grants on genome-wide studies of how epigenetic changes -- chemical modifications to genes that result from diet, aging, stress, or environmental exposures -- define and contribute to specific human diseases and biological processes.

17 Sep 2009

New program educates parents on fun, healthy mealtime ideas

How did the simple act of eating become so difficult? Between basic nutrition, the obesity epidemic, allergies, food recalls, and chemical contaminants, feeding children a healthy diet has never been so complicated. Eat Healthy, a new program from Healthy Child Healthy World, makes it easy.

15 Sep 2009

U.S. Department of Justice awards grant to Project Lifesaver International

Project Lifesaver International, a non-profit organization that helps rescue citizens who are prone to wander due to Alzheimer's disease, autism, and other cognitive disorders, received notification of federal assistance yesterday.

14 Sep 2009

Scientist awarded grant to study the role of VENs in quick decision making

A scientist at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to help study a rare cell type that is believed to play a role in quick decision making and intuition. Abnormalities in this cell type have been seen in people suffering from autism and dementia.

10 Sep 2009

Special issue of Optometry & Vision Development explores autism

Autism. What is its cause? How does it affect brain anatomy, electrophysiology, visual function and perception? What must we do to meet the needs of these patients? How can optometrists as health care providers be in the vanguard for screening for this spectrum of disorders?

10 Sep 2009

'How Much Longer' campaign for promoting autism awareness

The National Autism Association (NAA) declared today as National "How Much Longer" Day for Autism, a day of letter-writing to the media, health agencies, Department of Education, lawmakers and the Obama Administration asking for such things as health insurance coverage, federal laws to protect special-ed students from dangerous restraint and seclusion practices in schools, safer vaccines, and for autism to be declared a nation health crisis.

10 Sep 2009

PacifiCord and Milkalicious to sponsor a debate on pediatric vaccines

Dedicated to serving the private cord blood banking needs of Southern California, PacifiCord (www.pacificord.com) announced they are partnering with Milkalicious, an Aliso Viejo-based breastfeeding boutique and education center, in sponsoring “The Great Vaccine Debate.”

9 Sep 2009

Pharma manufacturer's failure to disclose endangers Swine Flu vaccination program

As autumn approaches and millions of Americans consider taking an H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination, the integrity of all vaccine developers has been called into question by the financial relationship of a leading vaccine advocate and a pharmaceutical manufacturer. Dr. Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), who was interviewed for a Dateline NBC television special, failed to tell millions of viewers that while he was promoting MMR as safe he had also made tens of millions of dollars from selling another vaccine patent to Merck, which is the manufacturer of MMR.

8 Sep 2009

Brainwave opens a new facility in Birchwood

National charity Brainwave, which provides home based therapy programmes for children with cerebral palsy and other conditions such as development delay, is opening a third Centre in Birchwood, Warrington to cope with the increasing demand for its services.

8 Sep 2009

Brain protein srGAP2 capable of forming filopodia

When the process goes awry, neurodevelopmental disorders such as mental retardation, dyslexia or autism may result. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have now discovered that establishing the neural wiring necessary to function normally depends on the ability of neurons to make finger-like projections of their membrane called filopodia.

5 Sep 2009

Health Net's ECHO kit to help military families maximize the health care benefits

Health Net Federal Services, LLC, the government operations division of Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT), today announced its newly developed Extended Care Health Option (ECHO) kit for service members and their families in the TRICARE North Region, designed to provide user-friendly, educational information to enhance understanding of the ECHO program.

5 Sep 2009

Pfizer pleads guilty of defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and other government-funded health care programs

Pfizer, Inc. announced today it has agreed to plead guilty to criminal conduct and to pay more than $2 billion in criminal and civil fines, penalties and damages to settle allegations made in multiple whistleblower lawsuits that the pharmaceutical giant defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other government-funded health care programs in connection with its market practices for four of its drugs. The settlement is the largest qui tam settlement in U.S. history.

3 Sep 2009

SRC raises funds through concert to help autistic children

The Sensory Research Center (SRC) held its first benefit, dessert and silent auction concert featuring LA Collaboration on the last week of August 2009. SRC Founder, Jennifer Hoffiz, said, "The concert was well attended and the talent of the performers was absolutely amazing. The concert and the silent auction allow SRC to offer 3 or 4 scholarships for children, whose parents/grandparents simply can not afford the neurosensory program, to receive this much needed therapy." One grandparent, Juanita Torres, who takes care of her twin autistic grandchildren, shared what it would mean to their family to receive a scholarship.

3 Sep 2009

Accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen increased

LENA Foundation has increased the accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen (LAS) to 91 percent for children 24 to 48 months. LAS - the first automatic and totally objective autism screen - is now as accurate or more accurate than other autism screens currently available to parents and clinicians.

3 Sep 2009

Yale University awarded $36 million ARRA funds for over 100 research projects

Faculty at Yale University have been awarded over 100 research grants totaling $36 million since February 2009, when the federal stimulus package was signed into law. Known as the American Recovery and Revitalization Act of 2009 (ARRA), the law aims to reinvigorate the economy and lay the foundation for long-term economic recovery by increasing investments in infrastructure, education, the environment and scientific research.

3 Sep 2009

University of North Carolina awarded the Center of Excellence in Genomic Science

To seek answers, the National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Institute of Mental Health has named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a Center of Excellence in Genomic Science and awarded UNC $8.6 million over five years to fund a new Center for Integrated Systems Genetics, or CISGen.

2 Sep 2009

Tel Aviv University researcher devises mathematical formula for protecting the genetic privacy

Last year, after a published paper found serious security holes in the way DNA data is made publicly available, health institutes in the United States and across the world removed all genetic data from public access.

1 Sep 2009

Caltech neuroscientists emphasize on the neural mechanisms involved in social behaviour

In a finding that sheds new light on the neural mechanisms involved in social behavior, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have pinpointed the brain structure responsible for our sense of personal space.

30 Aug 2009