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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Autism research takes brains

 /  15 October 2014
The Presenters
Presenter
David Amaral
Director, Autism BrainNet

David Amaral is distinguished professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Davis MIND Institute.

Presenter
Alison Singer
President, Autism Science Foundation

In a webinar on 15 October, David Amaral and Alison Singer suggested that the only way to answer questions related to the fundamental genetic and neuropathological aspects of autism is to study brain tissue from individuals with autism at the cellular and molecular level.

Amaral, distinguished professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, serves as director of Autism BrainNet, a consortium of academic sites that plans to collect, store and distribute brain tissue for autism research. Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, leads the initiative’s ‘It Takes Brains’ campaign — an outreach effort aimed at increasing tissue donations for research.

(Autism BrainNet is funded collaboratively by the research and advocacy organization Autism Speaks and the Simons Foundation, SFARI.org’s parent organization.)

You can watch a complete replay of the webinar above.

Use the comments section below to submit questions we didn’t have time to discuss during the Q&A session or to pose follow-up questions for Amaral and Singer.

Press Policy
The Spectrum Webinar Series aims to facilitate the free exchange of ideas among autism researchers, including discussion of published and unpublished research, hypotheses and results. Members of the press may report information presented during a Spectrum webinar only if that material has already been published elsewhere or they have first obtained express written consent from the presenter.

About Webinars
Presentations by leading experts that showcase new findings, useful techniques and emerging topics in autism research. We invite questions before and during the presentations in the Comments section.