The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Society of Toxicology (SOT) are interested in organizing a webinar or SOT Contemporary Concepts in Toxicology (CCT) conference about the toxicological aspects of Autism. As such, SOT seeks to know which members of its Specialty Sections (SS) are conducting research in this area. The goal of the webinar/CCT is to exchange information by providing an overview of NICHD Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) research activities and SOT toxicological expertise relevant to the characteristics and features of ASD that may lead to closer cooperation between NICHD and SOT. We would very much appreciate the benefit of your expertise to identify your SS members engaged in ASD research who might be interested in participating in a webinar or CCT. Please send this information by August 30, 2013 to
martha@toxicology.org. Upon receipt; we will forward this information to NICHD to assess the opportunity for closer interaction with SOT in this area.
ASDs are complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized by social impairments; communication difficulties; and restricted, repetitive, or stereotyped patterns of behavior. The most recent ASD prevalence estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are 11.3 per 1,000 children, or 1 child in 88 children (CDC, 2012). Some of this increase could be due to a broader definition of autism, better efforts in diagnosis, or greater awareness about symptoms. However, researchers can't rule out the possibility that there has been a true increase in the number of autism cases.
During the last decade-and-a-half, the NICHD has supported a considerable number of research projects related to ASDs. The past efforts of NICHD included the Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism (CPEA) Network on the Neurobiology and Genetics of Autism, which was co-funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD), and the Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART) Network, with co-funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), NIDCD, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). To maximize coordination and cohesion of NIH-sponsored efforts in autism research, the NIH consolidated the CPEA and STAART Networks into the trans-NIH Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) in 2007 to avoid duplication, allow pooling and most efficient use of resources, and involving a larger number of investigators in autism research.
The NICHD is one of the five NIH Institutes sponsoring the ACE Program, which supports studies on a range of autism topics, including early identification and intervention in infants at risk for ASDs, early brain abnormalities and functioning, potential environmental risk factors and biomarkers, intensive early behavioral intervention, long-term effects of early intervention, multidisciplinary studies of insistence on sameness, and trials of new medication treatments.The ACE Program includes ACE research centers that foster collaboration between teams of specialists who share the same facility to address a particular research problem in depth as well as ACE research networks that consist of researchers at many facilities in locations throughout the country, all of whom work together on a single research question.