April 2nd is World Autism Day. Yale School of Medicine has a new Autism Center of Excellence aimed at potential breakthroughs in diagnosis, treatment and intervention.
Goals of the Yale ACE:
- identify neural signatures of ASD and evaluate their relevance to prediction of outcomes and response to intervention during prenatal, neonatal, and school-age period
- identify sex-linked risk and protective factors in ASD
- conduct an efficacy trial of a novel intervention targeting an early attentional marker of autism
- examine cellular, molecular, and brain mechanisms in pairs of siblings concordant and discordant for ASD to isolate risk and protective factors for ASD
Dr. Kasia Chawarska, the Director of the Center, and investigator Dr. Laura Ment speak more about the latest advancements in Autism research in the interview above.