2005 Autism White Matter Think Tank

Recognizing that the issue of brain enlargement in autism may finally provide a biological substrate to explore autism pathophysiology, the February 2005 White Matter Think Tank (Malibu, CA) brought researchers together to brainstorm about the recent discovery of localized white matter increases in the brains of autistic children. Through this forum, Cure Autism Now succeeded in bringing scientists from other disciplines into the field of autism. The outcome of the meeting was a clear set of directions which the research experts felt were required to understand the white matter enlargement and how it relates to other areas of autism research. Cure Autism Now is currently using its resources to pursue these through a variety of granting mechanisms, including formation of our neuropathology workgroup, and funding of grants that study the physiological effects of white matter changes. This innovative meeting was covered in the New York Times (February 8, 2005, “Focus Narrows in Search for Autism's Cause”, by Sandra Blakeslee). Finally, it was at this forum that researchers suggested CAN sponsor a follow up meeting that would delve into imaging standards to lay the ground work for exploring the relationship between genotype and brain enlargement, which led to our 2006 Autism Neuroimaging Summit Meeting.

2004 Innovative Technology in Autism Think Tank

The Innovative Technology in Autism Think Tank in June 2004 (San Francisco, CA) brought together a workgroup to discuss the development of products that will provide real world solutions to issues faced by those with autism, their families, educators, healthcare specialists, and researchers. The incredible success of the meeting continues to guide our Innovative Technology in Autism (ITA) Initiative, which has since developed several programmatic areas including multi-year and fast track bridge grants. This initiative is multidisciplinary by design, and the on-going ITA workgroup spans academics, industry, and medical technology.

2002 Autism Clinical Trials Task Force

The Autism Clinical Trials Task Force was a consensus meeting convened by Cure Autism Now in 2002 (Santa Monica, CA) in order to have clinicians derive a consistent strategy for clinical studies in autism. The meeting brought together a panel of participants from academia, government, and industry. Five subcommittees were formed to focus on issues of clinical trials in autism, and the resulting reports were published as an entire issue of CNS Spectrums. This forward-thinking meeting has provided a valuable volume which informs researchers today, as discovery research moves the field to more numerous clinical trials specifically designed for autism. This effort was solidified in 2005 by formation of our Clinical Trials Network, which is designed to do shared, rapid trials among a group of experienced clinical researchers who can enact the guidelines laid out by the Clinical Trials Task Force.

2002 Targeted Research in Autism Workshop

In April 2002, Cure Autism Now held a Targeted Research in Autism Workshop (Santa Monica, CA) which attempted to pinpoint neurochemical targets and research directions in developmental neurobiology. The meeting report from this workshop is an extensive review published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry which was one of the first to discuss autism in terms of a disorder of neural information processing and functional connectivity. Pinpointing Autism: Autism as a Disorder of Neural Information Processing: Directions for Research and Targets for Therapy (Unabridged)

2000 Workshop on Mouse Models in Autism

On December 4, 2000 NIMH and Cure Autism Now sponsored a Workshop on Mouse Models in Autism (Bar Harbor, Maine) to bring together experts in the clinical features of autism, mouse genetics, and mouse phenotyping. This meeting identified important aspects of research vital for advancing our understanding of autism including a more complete understanding of patterns of regional gene expression across early development and ways to begin identifying the genes that contribute to autism.

2000 Autism: Gut Brain Workshop

In July 2000, Cure Autism Now held the Gut Brain Workshop (Hancock, MA) with the goal of bringing together experts in autism, pharmacology, and gastroenterology to address how understanding the complex system of the GI tract could explain and account for autistic symptoms.

1997 Cure Autism Now Consensus Conference

The Cure Autism Now Consensus Conference in 1997 (Los Angeles, CA) was held for the urgent purpose of bringing together the top experts in the autism clinical research community to establish, for the first time, a consensus statement of the autism “phenotype” and guidelines for a medical work up in autism. The meeting resulted in publication of the Autism Screening and Diagnostic Evaluation, thus providing an incredibly useful initial assessment tool for clinicians at a time when autism was still rarely discussed.

1996 AGRE and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) Genetic Work Group

In 1996 Cure Autism Now sponsored its first meeting, which resulted in the establishment of AGRE. This has become an invaluable resource to the autism field (see AGRE for Families or AGRE for Researchers). Subsequently, Cure Autism Now held two meetings of a Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) Genetic Work Group (October 2002, Baltimore, MD, and March 2002, San Diego, CA), which was formed to analyze how to move AGRE forward further and faster. Scientific areas of expertise represented included geneticists, biochemists, pharmacogenomicists, bioinformaticians, statisticians, neurologists, and computer scientists from both academia and industry. The result was an early collective attempt to proactively determine association of specific genes with autism using the AGRE samples. This group also shared on-going discussions of the then emerging SNP technologies.