Studies led by two UC Davis MIND Institute researchers are among Autism Speaks' top 10 for 2010.
Two UC Davis MIND Institute research studies are included in Autism Speaks’ top 10 autism research achievements of 2010.
Autism Speaks is the nation’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.
- Research by Sally Ozonoff, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and vice chair for research at the MIND Institute, found that autism’s earliest symptoms are not evident in infants less than 6 months of age. The research was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in February.
- Research by Cecilia Giulivi, professor of molecular bioscience in the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Isaac Pessah, chair of molecular bioscience and director of the UC Davis Children’s Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention, found that children with autism exhibit dysfunction in mitochondrial DNA. The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November. The research was funded in part by the MIND Institute.
The UC Davis MIND Institute in Sacramento, Calif., was founded in 1998 as a unique interdisciplinary research center where parents, community leaders, researchers, clinicians and volunteers collaborate to study and treat autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The institute has major research efforts in autism, Tourette syndrome, fragile X syndrome, chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). More information about the institute is available at www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute.
(First posted Jan. 19, 2011)