2003 Research Commitments

In 2003, NAAR committed approximately $4.9 million to fund 35 pilot studies, 13 pre- and post-doctoral fellowships and two autism training programs. NAAR’s 2003 research commitments funded autism investigations in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland and Denmark. As part of the 2003 awards, NAAR is co-sponsoring two autism training programs in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.

2003 PILOT STUDY GRANTS

Susan Birren, Ph.D.
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Regulation of Cortical Synaptogenesis by Basal Forebrain Cholinergic Neurons
Two-year award - $120,000
Research Partner: Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation

Patrick Bolton, Ph.D.
The Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, England
Speech & Language Impairments and Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Twin Study of the Links
Two-year award - $119,083

Patrick Bolton, Ph.D.
The Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, England
Event Related Potential & Behavioral Investigations of Face Processing in Individuals with Tuberous Sclerosis and Autism
Two-year award - $113,011

Kenneth Campbell, Ph.D.
Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, OH
Genetic Control of Mammalian Amygdalar Development
Two-year award - $120,000

Alice Carter, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA
Maternal Sensitivity, Joint Attention and Gains in Language Acquisition in Toddlers Diagnosed with Autism
Two-year award - $103,096

Manuel Casanova, M.D.
University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
Macroscopic Correlates of Minicolumnar Abnormalities in Autism
Two-year award - $120,000
Research Partner: Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation

Susan Christian, Ph.D.
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Identifying Small Chromosomal Rearrangements in Autism Using Microarrays
Two-year award - $118,845
Research Partner: Autism Coalition for Research & Education and Solving the Mystery of Autism

Antonio Convit, M.D.
New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY
Social Cognition and Brain Volumes in Asperger Syndrome
Two-year award - $112,900

Thomas Cook, Ph.D.
Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ
Placental Metabolism & Fatty Acid Homeostasis in Fetal Imprinting of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders
Two-year award - $120,000

Michael Cuccaro, Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Retrospective Association Analysis of Children with Idiopathic Autism Spectrum Disorders Treated with Fluoxetine
Two-year award - $109,703
Research Partner: The Michael & Cynthia Moran Family & Friends

Mirella Dapretto, Ph.D.
University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Language & Prosody in Autism: Evidence from fMRI
Two-year award - $120,000

Michelle Dunn, Ph.D.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
Understanding Cortical Auditory Processing Abnormalities in Children with Autism
Two-year award - $119,912
Research Partner: Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation

Michelle Dunn, Ph.D.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
Mapping Lexical Organization in Children with Autism
Two-year award - $119,912

Nicole Gage, Ph.D.
University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA
MEG Investigations of Cortical Auditory Processing in Children with Autism
Two-year award - $109,788

H. Hill Goldsmith, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, WI
A Birth Register-based Twin Study of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Two-year award - $118,910

Eli Hatchwell, Ph.D.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Genomic Copy Number Variation in Autism
One-year award - $60,000

Karl Herrup, Ph.D.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
The Engrailed-2 Mutant as a Model of the Neuropathology of Autism
Two-year award - $120,000
Research Partner: Autism Coalition for Research and Education

Laura Hewitson, Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Autism in Primates: Genetics vs Environment
Two-year award - $118,825

Jana Iverson, Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Early Identification of Autism: A Prospective Study
Two-year award - $119,861

Russell Margolis, M.D.
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Genetic Mutations Associated with Autism in Unexplored Regions of FOXP2
One-year award - $56,063

James Millonig, Ph.D.
University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ
Studying Mouse Cerebellar Development as a Tool to Identify Autism Susceptibility Genes
Two-year award - $120,000
Research Partner: Autism Coalition for Research and Education

Sherie Novotny, M.D.
University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ
Galantamine vs Placebo in Childhood & Adolescent Autism
Two-year award - $118,526

Payam Rezaie, Ph.D.
The Open University, Milton Keynes, England
Assessment of the Glial Response Within the Cerebral Cortex in Autism
Two-year award - $119,973

Timothy Roberts, Ph.D.
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
MEG Correlates of Linguistic Processing at and Below the Word Level in Autism
Two-year award - $119,918
Research Partner: Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation

Peter Scheiffele, Ph.D.
Columbia University, New York, NY
Frequency & Functional Characterization of Neuroligin Mutations
Two-year award - $119,998

Stephen Sheinkopf, Ph.D.
Brown Medical School, Providence, RI
Vagal Tone & Social Behaviors in Children with Autistic Disorder
Two-year award - $116,952

Elise Temple, Ph.D.
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Neural Mechanisms Underlying "Theory of Mind": fMRI Studies of Normally Developing and Autistic Children
Two-year award - $112,916

Poul Thorsen, M.D., Ph.D.
NANEA at Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine/Aarhus University, Denmark
Exposure to Pharmaceuticals in Pregnancy & Development of Autistic Disorder
Two-year award - $118,454
Research Partner: Autism Coalition for Research and Education

Jochen Triesch, Ph.D.
University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA
The MESA Project: Modeling the Emergence of Shared Attention
Two-year award - $120,000

Michael Ullman, Ph.D.
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Neurocognitive Correlates of Language in Autism
Two-year award - $118,575

John Welsh, Ph.D.
Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR
Inferior Olive & Autism: Electrical Synapses, Neuronal Synchrony & Cognition
Two-year award - $101,639
Research Partner: Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation

Justin Williams, M.B.B.S., MSc
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, England
Functional Neuroimaging Studies of Action, Facial and Object-directed Imitation
Two-year award - $119,977

Peter Zandi, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Maternal-fetal Incompatibility and Autism Risk
One-year award - $59,998

Xiaoxi Zhuang, Ph.D.
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Behavioral Effects of Hyper- and Hypo-Serotonergic Function in Transgenic Mouse Models
Two-year award - $120,000

Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, M.D.
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Investigating the Emergence of Familial Traits in Autism
Two-year award - $120,000
Research Partner: Dan Marino Foundation