The following is an archive of articles that have been removed from the Science News page. We hope you will find this collection useful as a historical reference:


Study: Children Can Be Diagnosed with Autism by Age One

Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute published a study this week showing that autism can be diagnosed in children as young as one year old.
Date: 06/29/07

NIH Scientists Discover Correlation Between Growth Hormone Levels and Autism

Researchers at NIH discovered an increase in growth-related hormones, weight, height and head size in autistic boys as compared to typically developing boys.
Date: 06/13/07

UCLA Study Shows Autistic Brains Can be Trained to Recognize Visual and Vocal Cues

Through the use of explicit instruction, researchers at UCLA were able to elicit an increased response in key regions of the brain in autistic boys.
Date: 06/13/07

Researchers Reveal Structure of Protein Altered in Autism

As a result of mapping the structure of the protein complex implicated in autism spectrum disorders, a research team led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has discovered how particular genetic mutations affect this complex and contribute to the developmental abnormalities found in children with autism. Their work, published as the cover article in the June issue of the journal Structure, should help scientists pinpoint the consequences of other genetic abnormalities associated with the disorder.
Date: 06/12/07

Novel Autism Susceptibility Gene Identified
Gene Important to Melatonin Synthesis is Mutated in Some Individuals with Autism

A team of scientists at the Pasteur Institute, led by Cure Autism Now funded researcher Thomas Bourgeron, has published a study in Molecular Psychiatry which identifies a new autism susceptibility gene, known as ASMT, which is involved in the production of melatonin from serotonin. The researchers studied a region shared by the X and Y chromosomes called the pseudoautosomal region 1 (PAR1). Deletions of the PAR1 region had been previously reported in patients with autism spectrum disorders, but the causative gene(s) were not identified.
Date: 05/15/07

Department of Defense Offers $7.5 Million in Autism Research Funding Opportunities

New funding opportunities are available for the Autism Spectrum Disorder from the Department of Defense Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Program. Some of the awards are specifically designed for a broad spectrum of investigators beyond those already mentioned, such as the fields of epidemiology, immunology, education, nutrition, psychology, psychiatry, etc, to focus their research on autism spectrum disorders.
Date: 05/03/07

Paternal Age and Autism Associated in Family-based Sample

A recent article by Abraham Reichenberg and co-workers based on Israeli births in the 1980's reported a significant association between paternal age at birth and a child's risk for developing autism. The study reported that as paternal age increased, so did the risk of autism spectrum disorder.
Date: 05/01/07

Institute of Medicine Convenes Workshop to Explore Environmental Factors

The promise of improved understanding of potential environmental factors in autism was the focus of a day-and-a-half-long workshop organized in Washington, D.C., by The Institute of Medicine on April 18-19, 2007. Entitled “Autism and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for Research,” the gathering focused on emerging technologies, new and existing infrastructure, and interdisciplinary research approaches necessary to forge collaborations between basic and clinical researchers.
Date: 04/27/07

International Meeting for Autism Research Highlights Research Advances

Researchers gathered in Seattle from May 3-5 to assess the state of autism science. The conference was attended by more than 900 scientists, physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, geneticists, neuroscientists, educators and parents, and drew participants from 30 countries around the world, including Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Israel and Japan. Autism Speaks was a primary sponsor of the meeting along with Cure Autism Now (CAN), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Autism Society of America (ASA).
Date: 04/13/07

Toxicologists Gather to Discuss Autism Spectrum Disorders

The cause and treatment of autism spectrum disorders was the focus of two dedicated sessions at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology, held in Charlotte, N.C., in March 2007. The first autism-related session offered an overview of the role of the environment in autism while a second session focused on the use and efficacy of chelation in heavy metal poisoning and relationship to autism spectrum disorder.
Date: 04/13/07

Discover Article Analyzes Recent Developments, Concepts

The April issue of Discover magazine features an article entitled "Autism: It's Not Just in the Head" by reporter Jill Neimark. The story provides an analysis of a few of the latest developments and concepts in autism research. Many of the scientists and projects discussed the the article were funded by Autism Speaks, Cure Autism Now (CAN) and the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR).
Date: 04/01/07

ITA Special Interest Group
CAN and Autism Speaks sponsor "Interactive Technologies for Autism," a Special Interest Group at ACM Computer-Human Interaction conference.
Date: 3/7/2007

Pat Levitt Awarded Cozzarelli Prize
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has awarded one of six Cozzarelli Prizes for an outstanding PNAS paper published in 2006 to Dr. Pat Levitt from Vanderbilt University for his paper entitled, "A genetic variant that disrupts MET transcription is associated with autism."
Date: 2/26/007

Autism Genome Project Finds Two Genetic Links to Disorder
The Autism Genome Project Consortium believes the identification of susceptibility genes will provide profound new insight into the basis of autism offering a route to breakthroughs in diagnosis and new treatments in support of families.
Date: 2/22/2007

Journal Spotlights Autism Speaks-Funded Research

The January 2007 issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, dedicated to the “The Very Early Autism Phenotype,” includes 14 scientific manuscripts that describe ongoing research examining early signs of children later diagnosed with autism , and prospective studies on “at risk” infant siblings of children with autism. The research works to identify and ascertain early signs and behavioral impairments with the goal of identifying autism at the youngest age to make early intervention possible and effective.
Date: 02/13/07

New Study Shows Promise for Treatment of Rett Syndrome

New research has found that the genetic mutation responsible for Rett Syndrome can be reversed pharmacologically in mice.
Date: 02/08/07

Cure Autism Now Holds Annual Autism Research Summit Meeting
Meeting Tackles the Role of the Immune System in Autism.
Date: 2/7/2007

Cure Autism Now Announces 2007 Pilot Project and Young Investigator Grants
Each Fall the Cure Autism Now Science Program advisory boards meet to review the latest round of Young Investigator and Pilot Project grants for the upcoming year. In 2006, our tenth year of offering these awards, Cure Autism Now received a record number of grant requests. Looking at our grant program overall, the number of applications has quadrupled in a mere two years, providing a stunning index of the intensity of the increased focus on autism within the research community.
Date: 1/25/2007

CAN Announces Request for Applications for Autism Treatment Network

Cure Autism Now announces the upcoming release of a Request for Applications (RFA) for its Autism Treatment Network, a network of treatment and research centers dedicated to improving medical care for children and adolescents with autism.
Date: 1/23/2007

Researchers Find Rare Mutations in SHANK3 Gene Are Associated with Autism

An international team of researchers headed by Thomas Bourgeron, Ph.D., has identified a set of mutations in a gene called SHANK3. Dr. Bourgeron's research team associated the SHANK3 mutations with autism spectrum disorders in a study funded by Cure Autism Now and published in this month in the journal Nature Genetics.
Date: 1/11/2007