Among them will be Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) neuroscientist Lindsay Oberman, PhD, using noninvasive brain stimulation and neuroimaging tools to study the brain in children and adults with autism spectrum disorders.

“The work that Lindsay will be pursuing has the potential to impact the lives of many individuals with these devastating disorders, as well as the lives of their families,” explains Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, Director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at BIDMC and Oberman’s Harvard Catalyst mentor. “This MeRIT program support enables junior scientists to advance their research so that they can reach the next level as clinical and translational scientists.”

Oberman uses transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to probe brain plasticity in ASD patients. TMS is a noninvasive technique in which a magnetic field is generated through a flat “paddle” placed against a patient’s scalp. The painless procedure results in the induction of electric currents and enables Oberman to target small areas of the brain to either enhance or reduce activity and measure the effects on subjects’ neural circuitry.

“Plasticity refers to changes in the brain that stem from new experiences, such as studying a new language or any other learning experience,” explains Oberman, who is also an Instructor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. “In patients with ASD, we think that these mechanisms of plasticity are abnormally high or ‘hyperplastic.’

“Our research is demonstrating that in individuals with no evidence of autism, these changes in the brain last about 30 minutes,” she explains. But, she adds, among adults with ASD, the brain changes last much longer, 90 minutes on average.

“This suggests that for ASD patients any new experiences are causing lasting brain changes, thereby leading to the communication and social deficits that often characterize these conditions,” says Oberman.

In addition, hyperplasticity may also explain some savant abilities demonstrated by some ASD patients; in such instances, patients are extremely gifted in one area, such as musical ability, in contrast to their overall developmental limitations. But, adds Oberman, on balance, it appears that hyperplasticity results in more problems than benefits for these individuals.

“If our studies in children are consistent with the data we’ve gathered from our adult research subjects, we may eventually be able to use hyperplasticity as a means of diagnosing autism in young children, before the onset of behavioral symptoms,” explains Oberman.

http://www.bidmc.org/News/InResearch/2010/January/LindsayOberman.aspx

Martha Naber, education program coordinator at KVCC, said the program is important for the health of families and communities.

As the prevalence of Autism rises, so does the need for educators to have a thorough understanding of those autism spectrum disorders.  Naber said the courses will be helpful for a host of people, including education technicians, teachers in search of recertification credits, health-care workers and family members.

“Each person on the spectrum is unique,” she said. “There is no one method (of teaching). One (child) might be very verbal and one might not have any language. One might flap their arms and one might not at all. One might be highly sensitive to light and another might be sensitive to sounds.”

Courses in the college’s 62-credit program include Working with Family Members, Language Development, Data Collection, and Assisted Technology.

Kennebec Valley Community College President Barbara Woodlee said the college is reacting to the needs of the community.

“KVCC has always adapted its program offerings to meet changing workforce needs, and the addition of a two-year autism degree is both timely and appropriate given the college’s experience in autism education and the significant increase in autism diagnosis nationwide,” she said.

Two courses for the degree will be offered this summer, according to Jonathan Humphrey, media specialist at the college. One will be available statewide through interactive television sites and one will be available online.

S100B Protein

A recent study showed that 36% of children with an Autism diagnosis had significantly higher serum S100B protein levels than healthy controls and that those with severe autism had significantly higher serum S100B protein than children with mild to moderate autism. 

The study was looking at levels to determine autoimmunity in Autism.  Elevated S100B levels in biological fluids (CSF, blood, urine, saliva, amniotic fluid) are regarded as a biomarker of pathological conditions, including perinatal brain distress, acute brain injury, brain tumors, neuroinflammatory/neurodegenerative disorders, psychiatric disorders. In the majority of these conditions, high S100B levels indicate cell damage when standard diagnostic procedures do not reveal anything.

The study’s authors explain that S100B, “is a calcium-binding protein that is produced primarily by astrocytes. Increased serum S100B protein levels reflect neurological damage. Autoimmunity may have a role in the pathogenesis of autism in some patients. Autoantibodies may cross the blood–brain barrier and combine with brain tissue antigens, forming immune complexes and resulting in neurological damage… Furthermore, S100B protein may act as a cytokine and in vitro studies have shown that, at high levels, S100B protein can induce the neuronal expression and secretion of proinflammatory IL-6. Elevated levels of S100B have been detected in the CSF of MS patients during acute phases or exacerbations of the disease, and it has therefore been proposed that elevated S100B protein may be indicative of active cell injury and can reflect an axonal and glial pathology.”

The researchers concluded that S100B protein levels were elevated in children with autism and significantly correlated to autistic severity. They believe this may indicate the presence of an underlying neuropathological condition in those with autism.  They did not find a correlation to the levels and autoimmunity but recommend further research is required to investigate the possible link between serum S100B protein levels and other autoantibodies, which are possible indicators of autoimmunity to central nervous system in autism.

The article A lack of association between elevated serum levels of S100B protein and autoimmunity in autistic children was published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Tammy Movsas, M.D., a postdoctoral epidemiology fellow at Michigan State University.

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered a connection between length of pregnancy and the severity of autism symptoms.

The research suggests normal term children born with autism have less severe symptoms than children with autism who are born pre-term or several weeks late.

Researchers also say that children with autism who were born either preterm or post-term are more prone to self-injury compared with children with autism who are born on time.

The research appears online in the Journal of Autism and Development Disorders.

While it is not yet clear why there is an increase in symptoms of autism, Tammy Movsas, M.D., a postdoctoral epidemiology fellow, believes the reasons may be tied to some of the underlying causes of why a child is born preterm (prior to 37 weeks) or post-term (after 42 weeks) in the first place.

“We think about autism being caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors,” she said. “With preterm and post-term babies, there is something underlying that is altering the genetic expression of autism.”

“The outside environment in which a preterm baby continues to mature is very different than the environment that the baby would have experienced in utero. This change in environment may be part of the reason why there is a difference in autistic severity in this set of infants.”

Researchers utilized an online database compiled by Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University of nearly 4,200 mothers — with children with ASD ages 4-21 — between 2006 and 2010. It divided the data on births into four categories: very preterm (born prior to 34 weeks); preterm (34 to 37 weeks); standard (37 to 42 weeks); and post-term (born after 42 weeks).

The mothers were required to complete a pair of questionnaires regarding the symptoms of their children, and the results revealed very preterm, preterm and post-term children with autism had significantly higher screening scores for autism spectrum disorder than those born full term.

“The findings point to the fact that although autism has a strong genetic component, something about pregnancy or the perinatal period may affect how autism manifests,” said Nigel Paneth, M.D., an MSU epidemiologist who worked with Movsas on the paper.”

“This adds to our earlier finding that prematurity is a major risk factor for autism spectrum disorder and may help us understand if anything can be done during early life to prevent or alleviate autism spectrum disorder.”

Dame Stephanie Shirley

Dame Stephanie Shirley is the British Government’s Founding Ambassador for Philanthropy, and the Chairman of the Shirley Foundation. The keynote speaker of the upcoming ICare4Autism International Autism Conference, Dame Shirley, recently expressed her thoughts on philanthropy and how to invigorate a giving culture.

Dame Shirley explained the result of having arrived in theUKin 1939 as an unaccompanied child refugee fromGermany, “my personal history is the main reason why I give. As a refugee, I need to justify the fact that my life was saved while so many others were lost. I’ve been the recipient of charity and have been sensitized to issues in a way that people who have always had enough money – not to be hungry anyway – find hard to imagine”.

She sites her two life-defining ideas as first, knowing that there is always hope and second, that even after losing everything she was never the victim of bigotry and cruelty.

Dame Shirley believes that it is important not to patronize beneficiaries and the key to this is for modern philanthropists to be actively involved.  She also believes the more open we are about our giving the more we will encourage a giving culture saying, “If I don’t talk about why and how I give, how can I get anyone else involved? A society needs models, strong models, to display personal vision and leadership.”

She also noted that there needs to be a shift in the way that governments, media and nonprofits interact with philanthropists.  Dame Shirley states that giving is voluntary and philanthropist don’t always respond to the most ‘needy’ so it is naïve for governments to rely on philanthropists to pick up the slack when services are cut.  She states that that the media need to find a way to both praise and critique the work of philanthropists.  Dame Shirley believes that nonprofits need to encourage their donors to voice their support to inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

The thoughts she wanted to leave the audience with were succinct and inspiring, “One: Be strategic in your giving. Make a difference. Two: Provide a role model. Be prepared to stand up and be counted. And: Always, but always, be humane.”

ICare4Autism International Autism Conference will be held in Jerusalem on the 1st and 2nd of August 2012. Autism: A Global Perspective will bring together top leading medical and educational professionals and researchers working in autism.

The purpose of the ICare4Autism conferences are to share current groundbreaking research into the causes and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders , and to be a catalyst for powerful interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle the global autism crisis. Registration is now open.

Researchers Martin Knapp, Ph.D., of the London School of Economics, and David Mandell, Sc.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, compiled information from recent studies of autism costs from many sources to determine the current cost of autism associated with the previous CDC-reported prevalence that 1:110 children were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  The prevalence has now increased to 1:88 and as high as 1:54 in boys. The cost of autism continues to grow with the rise in prevalence. The research team found that the cost of autism in the U.S. alone is greater than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 139 countries around the world.

“The need for action has never been more urgent.” said Dr. Joshua Weinstein, CEO & Founder of Shema Kolainu - Hear Our Voices in Brooklyn, NY and ICare4Autism in Jerusalem, Israel   “The soaring autism rate is one of our major concerns and one that I have been trying to alarm the world for many years. That is why I am convening the International Autism Conference in August that will take place in Jerusalem”

This research also found that intellectual disability plays a key role in the cost of autism to individuals, families, and society as a whole. The costs of autism per year are nearly twice as high on average for children and adults with intellectual disability than for children and adults without intellectual disability, $2.3 million in the U.S. and £1.5 million in the U.K. ($2.4 million) for those individuals who are impacted by intellectual disability compared with more than $1.4 million in the U.S. and £917,000 ($1.46 million) in the U.K. for those who do not have intellectual disability.  The latest CDC report found that in the U.S. the majority (62%) of those with ASDs did not have intellectual disability.

Experts consistently point to early interventions as key to increasing language and IQ scores, and reducing life span costs.

“We have entered a new age of autism, characterized on the one hand by unprecedented incidence, and on the other by advanced research, earlier diagnosis, and progressively more effective intervention.”  Dr Weinstein adds.

A study led by UK researcher Simon Baron-Cohen revealed that those with autism spectrum disorders often have excellent attention to detail that is directed towards detecting ‘if p, then q’ rules (or [input–operation–output] reasoning).  It’s no secret that those with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome excel in technical fields and there are great efforts to place them in suitable employment.

While there are already companies that work to place people with developmental disabilities into the technology field, the newest player Square One has a different approach.

The software and design firm has a small pilot program working to design a software-testing training program for people on the autism spectrum.  However, what is unusual about this program is that they are not using any funding or subsidies and have the bottom-line firmly in mind.

Currently a significant amount of software testing is outsourced to workers in the developing world. Square One co-founder Chad Hahn points out that his software testers will work for $15 to $20 an hour – pay comparable to, or even lower than, that of software testers in India, but with the benefit of being right here in the U.S. Hahn makes the case that there aren’t a lot of alternatives provided for people with autism —when they do find work, it’s usually unskilled work for minimum wage.

Hahn has had good feedback from parents of those with autism, who are supportive of the program if paying less makes hiring the developmentally disabled a viable option.

“I haven’t had one parent of an autistic child come to me and say this isn’t going to work,” he says. “They say, ‘This is a way for my child to make more money than they would have made otherwise, and allow them to be more independent.’ They worry, what is my child going to do when I’m gone? And this is kind of a way out.”

ICare4Autism also acknowledges the natural ability of those with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome to excel in the I.T. sector. Our autism workforce development initiative based out of our Global Autism Center in Jerusalem will work to assist students on the spectrum find high level career opportunities.  The service will provide individuals with a customized job plan, job coach, skills training and ongoing on-the-job training and support.  ICare4Autism is hoping to create a model that will be replicated internationally creating new high private sector opportunities world wide.

ICare4Autism’s workforce initiative, along with many other strategies in autism education, research and policy will be explored at our upcoming International Autism Conference – Autism: A Global Perspective on August 1^st-2^nd in Jersualem, Israel.

According to an exploratory study by Erin McCanlies, a research epidemiologist from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and colleagues, exposure to these chemicals could play a part in causing autism. Their pilot study is published online in Springer’s Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

The expert’s assessment indicated that exposures to lacquer, varnish and xylene (a solvent found in some ink, rubber, and paint thinner) occurred more often in the parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to the parents of unaffected children.

Parents of children with ASD were also more likely to report exposures to asphalt and solvents, compared to parents of unaffected children.

The NIOSH researchers evaluated whether parents’ exposure to chemicals at work might be associated with autism spectrum disorder in their children in a sample of 174 families — 93 of which included children with autism spectrum disorder and 81 with children experiencing typical development.

These findings bolster earlier research showing that prenatal chemical exposure could predispose kids to autism.

A 2006 study looking at air pollutants in the San Francisco Bay Area concluded that there was a potential association between autism and estimated metal concentrations, and possibly solvents, in ambient air around the birth residence but determined that these results required future studies to explore the link.

“Overall, these results add to the mounting evidence that individual exposures may be important in the development of ASD,” McCanlies says. “However, these results are preliminary and are not conclusive. Additional research is required to confirm and extend these initial findings.”

The researchers described the study as “a first pass screen from which results can be used to target future research directions.”

While consensus among mainstream autism researchers is that genetic factors predominate; environmental factors that have been claimed to contribute to autism or exacerbate its symptoms, include certain foods, infectious disease, heavy metals, solvents, diesel exhaust, PCBs, phthalates and phenols used in plastic products, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, alcohol, smoking and illicit drugs. Some of these factors have been largely disproved and others require further study – the causes of autism are still a mystery.

The NIOSH researchers concluded that further studies that employ larger sample sizes and investigate interactions between workplace exposures and genetic factors would be beneficial.

Dr. Henry Markram is Director of the Blue Brain Project at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

Henry Markram, PhD, plans to build a brain from scratch. Markram, a South-African-born brain electrophysiologist who joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) a decade ago, believes the only way to really understand how human brains work is to create one, then subject it to a variety of experiments.

To that end, Dr. Markram has established the Human Brain Project (HBP). The project aims to incorporate the all the pieces of the brain puzzle that have been discovered by neuroscientists over the past few decades, from the structures of ion channels to the mechanisms of conscious decision-making, into a single supercomputer model: a virtual brain.

The computing power that would be required to run such a machine has not yet been established but Dr. Markram believes that scientists should be anticipating advances in technology and start work on the project now.

If successful, the resulting model will be capable of learning and could gradually develop complex cognitive abilities, much like a living human.

The plan is controversial; some scientists think it just won’t work, while others expect a virtual brain will be just as puzzling and difficult to work with as a real one. Nonetheless, the Human Brain Project has been selected as a finalist for the European Union’s two new Flagship initiatives — grants worth 1 billion Euros ($1.3 billion) apiece.

If the HBP is selected, one of the key goals will be to make it highly collaborative and Internet-accessible, open to researchers from around the world, says Dr. Markram, adding that the project consortium already comprises some 150 principal investigators and 70 institutions in 22 countries. “It will be lots of Einsteins coming together to build a brain,” he says, each bringing his or her own ideas and expertise.

Dr. Markram seems to be gaining support. Last year, the board that oversees both the ETH and the EPFL eagerly endorsed the Blue Brain Project after a meticulous review by a four-member panel that included two outspoken sceptics of Dr. Markram’s approach. The board asked the Swiss parliament to commit 75 million Swiss francs (US$81 million) to the project for 2013–16 — more than ten times Blue Brain’s current budget. Parliament’s decision is expected next month.

Dr. Markram is positive that the European Union will come to a similar conclusion about the HBP. However, if the project isn’t endorsed, says Dr. Markram, “we’ll just continue with Blue Brain” — although it may take a lot longer to reach a full brain simulation.

Dr. Markram feels that the past is on his side. “Simulation-based research is an inevitability,” he declared. “If I get stopped from doing this, it’s going to happen. It has happened already in many areas of science. And it is going to happen in life science.”

Berg Pharma, a molecular diagnostics company, has been working on a new approach to understanding autism and identifying novel biomarkers for diagnosis.

The unveiled study conducted by Berg involves assessing tissues from families with children with autism.  Researchers hope to analyze more families to validate these biomarkers.

The researchers subjected data driven biological modeling to a bioinformatic module to assess the differences between disease and normal samples. They put more emphasis on proteomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic data rather than genomics. Three key biomarkers were identified: SPTAN1, CORO1A, and GLUD1.

“The identification of biomarkers for autism and similar conditions would form the basis for a paradigm shift in the way we diagnose and likely treat these disorders,” said Stephanie Peabody, lead faculty at Harvard University’s Mind, Brain, Health, and Education course.

“The disorder is currently diagnosed by behavioral observation, and to date no associated biomarkers have been identified and clinically validated,” Berg Biosystems central nervous system diseases program leader Paula P. Perez said in a statement.

Niven R. Narain, president and chief technology officer of Berg Pharma explained that it is Berg’s belief that the fundamental biological workings of autism must be uncovered before any real biomarkers or therapeutics can be realized.

“These highly innovative approaches to exploring the underlying biological abnormalities of autism are revealing new genes and biochemical pathways possibly linked to the disorder,” added Eric Nestler, chairman of the department of neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, “The work presented herein by the Berg research teams is an important start that may lead to earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments.”