PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
13-Aug-2014
Contact: Phyllis Brown phyllis.brown@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9111 University of California - Davis Health System
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) Bringing together the research prowess of the University of California to address the increase in autism incidence, its public health impacts, and the need to speed the development of treatments for affected individuals and their families, internationally respected scientists from UC campuses at Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Davis will converge at the UC Davis MIND Institute for a daylong summit on innovative translational neurodevelopmental research.
An initiative of the UC Office of the President, the University of California Summit on Translational Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders will be held Thursday, Aug. 14, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento. The summit will include a presentation via video conference on "Pressing Issues for a Translational Science of Autism Spectrum Disorder" by Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Participation in the summit is by invitation only.
"The increase in autism spectrum disorder cases has exceeded the capacity of public and private organizations to provide effective health care, education and treatment to affected families," said Leonard Abbeduto, Vismara-Tsakopoulos Endowed Chair and director of the MIND Institute.
"We must develop new, more effective strategies for treatment and prevention that are informed by a deeper understanding of the etiology, mechanisms and manifestations of the disorder."
Autism spectrum disorder is a lifelong developmental condition with a constellation of symptoms that affect social interactions, behavior and the ability to think, learn and problem solve. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 68 children born today will develop the disability, whose incidence has increased by more than 600 percent during the past two decades. More than 350,000 Californians live with autism today.
As one of the world's largest and most prestigious research institutions, the University of California is uniquely positioned to address the mysteries surrounding autism, because of its resources and unrivaled expertise in autism science and health-care delivery. The campuses participating in the summit are those with interdisciplinary autism research programs, integrated health-care systems, and programs that train pediatric health-care professionals. Other UC campuses will participate in follow-up meetings.
The summit also is endorsed by BRAID (Biomedical Research Acceleration, Integration and Development), the unique consortium of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded translational science centers across the UC health centers.
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University of California brings researchers together for statewide autism summit