Thursday, July 16, 2009 - California's sevenfold increase in autism cannot be explained by changes in doctors' diagnoses and most likely is due to environmental exposures, University of California scientists reported Thursday. "It's time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California," said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an epidemiology professor at University of California, Davis who led the study.

July 13, 2009 — Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects 3 to 5 percent of children and adolescents and is the most commonly diagnosed child psychiatric disorder worldwide. It is also highly prevalent in adults with approximately 4 percent of the adult population thought to have ADHD. On July 16 Julie Schweitzer, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and an expert on ADHD, will discuss what her research reveals about how best to help people with the condition.

June 25, 2009 — Researchers at UC Davis have developed a new test that will measure the protein deficit responsible for fragile X syndrome — the single-most common cause of intellectual impairment and the most-commonly inherited cause of autism.

June 9, 2009 — A network of leading autism researchers from three regions across the country today launched one of the largest research studies of its kind to investigate early risk factors for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

May 28, 2009 — State-of-the-art research and best practices for interventions to support children and adults with autism, Asperger syndrome, fragile X syndrome and other neurodevelopmental disorders will be presented by leaders in the field during a one-day conference for families, educators and other professionals on Friday, August 7, 2009.

April 14, 2009, 6:05 pm

April 13, 2009 -- Exposure to environmental toxins known as PCBs have long been linked with behavioral and developmental problems in children, but scientists could never say exactly how PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) might adversely affect the brain and lead to the problems.

April 2, 2009- Research and testing point to new methods for identifying and treating autism.

April 2, 2009 — The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Tony J. Simon, pediatric cognitive neuroscientist with the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, a five-year, $2.6 million grant to study the syndrome associated with the single most common genetic deletion in humans — chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

March 24, 2009 — Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show more variable or inconsistent responses during ‘working’ or short-term memory tasks when compared with typically developing peers, a study by UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researcher Julie Schweitzer has found.

January 7, 2009 — A study by researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute has found that the seven- to eight-fold increase in the number children born with autism in California  since 1990 cannot be explained by either changes in how the condition is diagnosed or counted — and the trend shows no sign of abating.

January 6, 2009 — A study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago and the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute has found that an oral drug therapy, called fenobam, shows promising results and could be an effective new treatment for adults with fragile X syndrome.

January 2009 — Using the latest brain imaging technology, Julie Schweitzer is revealing the inner workings of the brains of adults and children with ADHD — attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Schweitzer, who also has extensive clinical experience in treating patients with ADHD, will now use her expertise to establish a comprehensive ADHD program at the M.I.N.D. Institute.

December 15, 2008 — Parents of children with intellectual disabilities have long been frustrated by intelligence quotient (IQ) testing that tells them little to nothing about the long-term learning potential of their children.

November 25, 2008 — Writing in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researchers urge physicians to test for mutations of the fragile X gene in patients of all ages. That's because, after decades of research, it is clear that mutations in this gene cause a range of diseases, including neurodevelopmental delays and autism in children, infertility in women and neurodegenerative disease in older adults.

November 22, 2008 – The goal of the MARBLES study, or Markers of Autism Risk in Babies Learning Early Signs, is to discover whether environmental pollutants that may exist in the body or the home can be linked to autism. The study focuses on women who have one autistic child, because they are at least 10 times more likely than other women to have a second child with the disorder.

November 6, 2008 — Researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute have found that children with autism exhibited unusual exploration of objects long before being diagnosed. Studying a group of children at high risk for developing autism, the researchers found that those eventually diagnosed with the disorder were more likely to spin, repetitively rotate, stare at and look out of the corners of their eyes at simple objects, including a baby bottle and a rattle, as early as 12 months of age.

October 31, 2008 — A home run by the home team is usually a thing of joy, not a source of panic. But that's just what seven-year-old Justin Silver felt two years ago after a blast from a Yankee bat brought a roar from the crowd at Yankee Stadium.

October 7, 2008 — A study by researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute has discovered an important clue to why children with autism spectrum disorders have trouble imitating others: They spend less time looking at the faces of people who are modeling new skills.

September 18, 2008 - Devastated when his only son was diagnosed with autism, Dr. Lou Vismara transformed his life and helped launch the world-renowned UC Davis MIND Institute. For the past decade at the MIND Institute, some of the country’s best minds have been using the tools and technologies of medicine to attack the “public-health crisis of autism” ….

August 22, 2008 — Researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and Children's Hospital in Denver have conducted the largest study to date describing the medical and psychological characteristics of a rare genetic disorder in which males have two "X" and two "Y" chromosomes, rather than the normal one of each.

August 19, 2008 — Researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute will launch the first widespread newborn screening for the genetic mutation that results in fragile X syndrome, the single most common inherited cause of mental retardation. 

Summer 2008 - Under the leadership of world renowned researcher Sally Rogers, the M.I.N.D. Institute has embarked on the largest and most comprehensive behavioral intervention study of children with autism ever conducted: The $15.3million Early Steps study. The Early Steps study will test an intervention approach that Rogers developed with her colleagues.

Summer 2008 - Renowned developmental and clinical psychologist Peter Mundy holds a joint appointment as a professor in the School of Education and as director of educational research at the M.I.N.D. Institute.  In his dual posts, Mundy is finding new ways to accelerate the conversion of neurodevelopmental research into new curricula and teacher training.

July 14, 2008 — UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researchers have found that, when compared to men their own age, male carriers of fragile X syndrome have chromosomes shortened at the tips. 

June 20, 2008 — Recent media reports have attributed a causal link between autism and a common antibacterial and anti-fungal agent called triclosan to researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. There is no evidence that triclosan is implicated in promoting autism and neither the M.I.N.D. Institute nor any researchers associated with the M.I.N.D. Institute have made this assertion. 

February 11, 2008 — New research from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute shows that an interaction between fetal brain cells and maternal antibodies could be linked with the repetitive behavior - also called stereotypies - that is characteristic of autism.

February 11, 2008 — New research from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and Center for Children's Environmental Health has found that antibodies in the blood of mothers of children with autism bind to fetal brain cells, potentially interrupting healthy brain development. 

January 24, 2008 — A group of genes with known links to natural-killer cells - the first to attack viruses, bacteria and malignancies - are expressed at high levels in the blood of children with autism when compared to children without the disorder, according to a new study from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. Researchers also found gene expression distinctions in children with early onset and regressive forms of the disorder.

January 3, 2008 — UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researcher Sally J. Rogers has received $15.3 million to test the effects of an intensive intervention for toddlers with autism that combines play- and relationship-based approaches with applied behavior analysis.