$5 million grant from NIH will enable UCLA to develop new models for autism

Many genes that increase the risk of autism spectrum disorders have been identified, but their mechanisms remain largely unknown. Now a team of UCLA researchers has received a five-year grant of more than $5 million from the National Institutes of Health to support its work to identify those mechanisms.Led by Dr. Daniel Geschwind at UCLA, researchers will work with counterparts at Stanford University to assess the specific impact of genetic mutations on alterations in molecular, cellular and neural circuitry. Geschwind is the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Chair in Human Genetics and a professor of neurology and psychiatry at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The Stanford team received a grant of about $4 million over 5 years; it ’s led by Sergiu Pasca, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.“Both institutions have learned so much in recent years about the myriad individual changes behind autism spectrum disorders, but we still don’t understand the impact of those changes or how they work together,” Geschwind said. “This grant will help us to collaboratively identify the missing pieces of the puzzle.”The primary objective of the grant, which is funded through the National Institutes of Mental Health, is to encourage innovative “convergent neuroscience” approaches that help link various types of analyses. That is, researchers are encouraged to explain the specific impact of individual biological processes.The researc...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news