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Research by Topic: asf
Blog: My Journey to Becoming a Special Education Teacher
Published September 19, 2018When asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” in elementary school, Allyson Schwartzman had one answer – “an autism teacher”. Read about how Allyson made her dream a reality by becoming a special education teacher on the ASF blog.
Filed under: Allyson Schwartzman, ASD, asf, Autism, blog, early childhood, elementary, Family, featured, special education, teaching
Podcast: Just Listen to Nancy Reagan – Say NO to MDMA
Published September 17, 2018This week’s podcast begins with a comment on the debate over ABA – helpful or harmful? But the big news this week is an analysis of very early, but very published, data on the use of MDMA, also known as “ecstasy” or “Molly”, in people with autism. Called an “empathogen”, MDMA can elicit feelings of […]
Filed under: ABA, ASD, asf, Autism, Behavior, drug, Emory University, featured, Lawrence Scahill, MDMA, neurotoxin, podcast, research, science, social anxiety, therapy
Podcast: Children are not small adults
Published September 3, 2018Children are not small adults, and this was illustrated this week in two papers studying features of autism across the lifespan. Their symptoms may change, which has implications for treatment – you can’t take an intervention designed for a child and give it to an adult. Hear more on this week’s podcast with an interview […]
Filed under: adolescents, Adults, ASD, asf, Autism, children, development, featured, outcomes, podcast, research, science
Siblings could shed light on roots of autism
Published August 30, 2018The Smithsonian Magazine reported on the story of the Bak family and the Autism Sisters Project, an ASF scientific initiative determined to understand the disparity of autism diagnoses between boys and girls and the potential female protective effect. Through the study of the unaffected sisters of people with autism, the goal is to build a […]
Filed under: adult outcomes, ASD, asf, Autism, Autism Science Foundation, Autism Sisters Project, Diagnosis, Diagnostic Disparities, featured, female protective effect, Genetics, research, science, Smithsonian Magazine
Podcast: Tristram Smith, 1961-2018
Published August 27, 2018Two weeks ago, the autism research community lost a pioneer, mentor and advocate for the autism community. This podcast only highlights a portion of the enormous contribution he made to autism research and the impact his research had on families with ASD. Also, two people that know him best, one of his current mentees, Suzannah […]
Filed under: ASD, asf, Autism, Behavior, children, families, featured, podcast, research, science, therapy, Treatment
Podcast: What are PCOS and DDT, and what do they have to do with autism?
Published August 20, 2018On this week’s podcast, the link between polycystic ovarian syndrome and autism explained and tied in with a new study on the highly toxic chemical DDT. They do have a common link. Research also shows that environmental exposures and maternal medical conditions contribute to a host of outcomes and comorbidities, autism being one of them.
Filed under: ASD, asf, Autism, Columbia University, DDT, featured, PCOS, podcast, polycystic ovarian syndrome, Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, research, science, University of Cambridge
Podcast: What is happening in research around employment for people with ASD?
Published August 13, 2018On this week’s podcast, Melissa Scott of Curtin University discusses findings from the first paper out of Curtin’s collaboration with ASF, Stony Brook University, and Karolinska Institutet on an international policy brief on employment for people with autism. Based on a scoping review of existing research on employment practices, the environment was one crucial element […]
Filed under: asf, best practices, Curtin University, employment, Environment, featured, INSAR, Karolinska Institute, Melissa Scott, podcast, policy brief, research, science, Stony Brook University
Share your story with ASF
Published August 9, 2018We’re collecting some background stories on how your child’s restrictive and repetitive behaviors are effecting his/her life and your whole family’s experience. Our goal is to encourage more research in this area. Please share your stories by sending an email to ASF at contactus@autismsciencefoundation.org.
Filed under: asf, Behavior, children, families, featured, research, restricted and repetitive, story
ASF now accepting applications for 2019 fellowship
Published August 3, 2018The Autism Science Foundation invites applications for its Pre- and Postdoctoral Training Awards from graduate students, medical students and postdoctoral fellows interested in pursuing careers in basic and clinical research relevant to autism spectrum disorders. You can learn more about the fellowship requirements here. Applications are due December 3, 2018 at 5:00 pm EST.
Filed under: ASD, asf, ASF fellowship, Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorder, basic science, clinical science, featured, fellowships, graduate, postdoc, postdoctoral, research fellowships
Podcast: PMS – It’s not what you think
Published July 30, 2018On this week’s podcast, highlights from the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation 2018 International Family Conference in Dallas, TX. People with Phelan McDermid Syndrome, or PMS, suffer from seizures and intellectual disability, and about 70% have an ASD diagnosis. This syndrome is caused by mutations of the SHANK3 gene, which is present in about 1% of people […]
Filed under: asf, Autism, children, Family, featured, intervention, outcomes, Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, PMS, podcast, research, science, support
Podcast: Classroom interventions that work
Published July 23, 2018On this week’s podcast, two studies that used a randomized design to show how interventions can be delivered in the classroom.
Filed under: asf, Autism, classroom, featured, intervention, podcast, research, science, students, teachers
Podcast: Autism diagnosed in school age, and does early intervention make a difference?
Published July 16, 2018On this week’s podcast, highlights of a new systematic review on Early Intense Behavioral Intervention. Thank you to the ASF community for suggesting this topic for the podcast!
Filed under: asf, Autism, Early Intense Behavioral Intervention, Early Intervention, EIBI, featured, podcast, research, review, science
Three new members of ASF SAB
Published July 16, 2018The Autism Science Foundation today announced the appointment of Guoping Feng, PhD, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stephan Sanders, PhD, BMBS, of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Robert T. Schultz, PhD, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). As members of the SAB, the scientists will help […]
Filed under: asf, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, CHOP, featured, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, SAB, Scientific Advisory Board, UCSF, University of California San Francisco
Podcast: If you want to know about people with autism, ask them
Published July 9, 2018If you want to know about people with autism, ask them. Scientists are working on how they collect information from people with autism in order to better understand individual experiences and produce findings that may help improve services. Listen to the podcast episode here.
Filed under: asf, Autism, featured, individual experiences, podcast, research, science, self report, services
ASF renews grant to expand Baby Sibs research
Published July 2, 2018ASF is proud to announce continued support for the Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC), a network of over 33 research sites around the world studying the younger siblings of people with autism. The Baby Sibs database now tracks over 5,000 younger siblings, with and without autism. The database has been used to develop more sophisticated […]
Filed under: asf, baby siblings, Baby Siblings Research Consortium, Baby Sibs, Behavior, BSRC, collaboration, consortium, early diagnosis, Early Intervention, Family, featured, genes, intervention, research, science, sex difference, Siblings
Podcast: A tool to describe strengths of people with autism
Published July 2, 2018For this week’s podcast, Soheil Mahdi of the Karolinska Institutet describes the International Classification of Functioning (ICF), a tool used being used to describe the strengths of people with autism in order to identify opportunities for them. ASF is collaborating with Mr. Mahdi on an employment policy brief.
Filed under: asf, employment, featured, ICF, International Classification of Functioning, Karolinska Institute, opportunity, podcast, policy brief, research, science, strengths
Dr. Allison Jack of GWU receives ASF grant
Published July 2, 2018Allison Jack, PhD, of the Autism and Neurodevelopment Disorders Institute at George Washington University today received a 2018 ASF Research Accelerator Grant. The funding will allow Dr. Jack and her collaborators to analyze epigenetic modifications of the oxytocin receptor in all 250 participants of their current NIH-funded project examining the differences in brain structure between […]
Filed under: Allison Jack, asf, Autism, Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, award, featured, funding, Grants, research, research accelerator grant, science, The George Washington University
Podcast: Ode to autism dads
Published June 18, 2018On this week’s podcast, a special episode highlighting recent research focusing on fathers. This includes genetics, parental stress and quality of life, and broader autism phenotype features. Of note, two new studies that look at antidepressant exposure in father and probability of having a child with autism – a variation on studying maternal exposures.
Filed under: antidepressant, asf, Autism, broader autism phenotype, dad, exposure, father, featured, Genetics, parental stress, paternal, podcast, quality of life, research
ASF’s 2018 summer intern shares her experience
Published June 13, 2018ASF’s summer intern Seowon Song shared her experience as an autism sibling on the ASF blog. In January 2016, she helped develop a support group for siblings of those with autism in South Korea named “Nanun”. The group published a book of their stories in March 2018. You can read the blog in English and […]
Filed under: acceptance, advocacy, asf, Autism, awareness, blog, featured, Siblings, South Korea, summer intern, support
Podcast: Sobering statistics on suicide
Published June 4, 2018Suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempts have been shown to be increased in people with ASD. Rates are similar to those with bipolar depression and schizophrenia, but are higher even without psychosis. This is shocking and an urgent health issue in the autism community. This week’s podcast summarizes recent data, publications, presentations, and concerns of thought […]
Filed under: asf, Autism, featured, podcast, prevention, research, Risk Factors, suicide
Podcast: In partial phrase of the DSM 5
Published May 28, 2018On this week’s podcast, diagnosis with the DSM 5. While much work needs to be done to include individual abilities and disabilities into the DSM5, after the CDC prevalence numbers were published last month, it became clear the old DSM IV was not working. In a replication of a previous finding, it showed that the […]
Filed under: asf, Autism, CDC, Diagnosis, diagnostic categories, DSM, featured, podcast, research
Podcast: The sticky subject of cost-effectiveness
Published May 21, 2018On this week’s podcast, Dr. Tracy Yuen of University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children explains two different analyses of cost-effectiveness which looked at 1) universal screening for ASD and 2) use of genomic sequencing to identify novel variants in people with ASD.
Filed under: ASD, asf, cost-effectiveness, featured, podcast, research, Screening, Sick Kids, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto
Podcast: A sampling of science from the International Meeting of Autism Research
Published May 15, 2018This week’s podcast is a short summary of just a few of the presentations. There was more of an emphasis on what has been called “real life” research questions like employment, quality of life, and relationships. As a result, some of the more basic science questions around autism are now being presented at other meetings. […]
Filed under: asf, conference, featured, INSAR, International Society for Autism Research, podcast, research, science, services, support
Podcast: Where the wild new genetic hot spots are
Published May 7, 2018On this week’s podcast, three genetics papers featuring three ASF fellows! All three deal with using whole genome sequencing (WGS) to study non-coding regulatory regions that may be associated with autism. These regions of DNA do not code for proteins but regulate the regions that do. Mutations in the non-coding regulatory regions that regulate the […]
Filed under: asf, ASF Grantee, Donna Werling, featured, Genetics, Genomics, Joon Yong An, Mutations, podcast, research, UCSD, UCSF, WGS, William Brandler
5th Annual Day of Learning videos now online!
Published May 1, 2018Videos of all the presentations at ASF’s 5th Annual Day of Learning held on April 11 are now available online. You can view them here. Topics include gender differences in autism, sleep problems in autism, the potential of medical marijuana as an autism treatment, adult outcomes, the role of dietary interventions, and the perception of […]
Filed under: adult outcomes, ASD, asf, Ashura Buckley, Autism, Day of Learning, Diet, featured, gender differences, intervention, John Spiro, Julie Lounds Taylor, medical marijuana, Michelle Failla, New York University, NIMH, nutrition, Orrin Devinsky, pain, Perception, research, science, Simons Foundation, Sleep, Somer Bishop, Susan Hyman, UCSF, University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University
Dr. Paul Offit Receives 2018 Sabin Gold Medal
Published April 25, 2018The Autism Science Foundation team is proud to announce that ASF Board Member Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia received the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal from the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Every year, the Sabin Vaccine Institute recognizes a distinguished member of the public health community who has made extraordinary contributions in […]
Filed under: asf, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, featured, Paul Offit, rotavirus, Sabin Gold Medal, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Vaccines
Podcast: Just to be clear, people with Aspergers are not Nazi’s
Published April 23, 2018This week’s podcast covers the recent article published in Molecular Autism that looks into the history of Hans Asperger, the eponym of Asperger’s Syndrome and a physician with ties to eugenics in Nazi-era Vienna.
Filed under: asf, featured, Hans Asperger, Herwig Czech, Molecular Autism, podcast
Podcast: The ASF Day of Learning mini-recap
Published April 16, 2018This week’s podcast is a mini-recap of the 5th Annual Day of learning. Hear what the speakers distilled in their TED-style talks on topics covered sleep, diet, and medical marijuana as a potential treatment for autism. Plus hear about the most recent ASF grantees.
Filed under: ASD, asf, Autism, Day of Learning, featured, fellowship, Grants, podcast, research
Inside Philanthropy covers significance of ASF undergraduate grant
Published April 13, 2018Inside Philanthropy, a group that urges transparency in philanthropy and tracks philanthropic trends, recognized the uniqueness of the Autism Science Foundation’s undergraduate grants in a recent article. ASF invests in the future by funding young scientists, helping set their careers in autism research in motion, early on. Learn more about what ASF funds here.
Filed under: asf, Autism, Autism Science Foundation, featured, grant, Inside Philanthropy, research, summer award, undergraduate
2018 Fellowship recipients announced
Published April 11, 2018Today, ASF announced the 2018 recipients of its Pre- and Postdoctoral Research Training Awards. The recipients include three graduate students—Amy Ahn, Cara Keifer, and Julia Yurkovic—and five postdoctoral fellows—Joon An, Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam, Aaron Gordon, Whitney Guthrie, and Christine Ochoa-Escamilla. You can learn more about the recipients and their projects from ASF’s official press release […]
Filed under: asf, Autism, Autism Science Foundation, featured, fellowship, graduate, grant, postdoctoral, research, training award
Podcast: Through the years
Published April 9, 2018On this week’s podcast, studies tracking changes over time. The British Autism Study of Infant Siblings (BASIS) tracked changes in adaptive behaviors and cognitive skills in children at low-risk and high-risk of an ASD diagnosis, based on family history. The results point to the value in monitoring siblings of those with autism. Researchers at Kaiser […]
Filed under: adaptive behavior, asf, BASIS, cognitive skills, family history, featured, health, Kaiser Permanente, medical conditions, podcast, psychiatric conditions, research
2018 Undergraduate Summer Research Grant recipients announced
Published April 5, 2018Today, ASF announced the 2018 recipients of its Undergraduate Summer Research Grants. The recipients include Ethan Gahr, Evan Suzman, Christina Layton, and Ryan Risgaard, who will be conducting research at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Vanderbilt University, the Seaver Autism Center, and University of Wisconsin, respectively. You can learn more about the recipients and their projects from […]
Filed under: asf, Autism, Autism Science Foundation, featured, grant, research, summer award, undergraduate
Autism Sisters Project featured on NBC New York
Published April 2, 2018The goal of the Autism Sisters Project is to build a large genetic database that researchers can use to explore the sex difference in autism diagnoses between boys and girls and discover how the potential protective factor, known as the female protective effect, can be harnessed to help people with autism of both sexes. NBC […]
Filed under: ASD, asf, Autism, Autism Sisters Project, Diagnostic Disparities, featured, female protective effect, Mount Sinai, NBC New York, research, science, Seaver Autism Center, sex difference
Podcast: Here’s to understanding why people with autism have anxiety in adolescence
Published April 2, 2018On this week’s ASF podcast: By looking directly at the brains of people with autism, researchers at UC Davis MIND Institute, led by Dr. Thomas Avino and Dr. Cyndi Schumann, show a disruption of neuron number in the amygdala in autism. The amygdala is important because it is linked to emotion, fear and anxiety in […]
Filed under: amygdala, anxiety, ASD, asf, Autism, autism brainnet, Cyndi Schumann, David Amaral, featured, podcast, Thomas Avino, UC Davis MIND Institute
Podcast: Loss of skills in autism partially explained
Published March 19, 2018On this week’s ASF podcast, regression—what is it and who can see it? Using the right tools, both parents and clinicians can see that many more children with autism than thought show regression, a gradual decline or loss of skills starting at around 12 months of age and showing continual declines until 36 months of […]
Filed under: asf, brain, communication, featured, NIMH, podcast, regression, Sally Ozonoff, Social Skills, UC Davis