SFARI | Search Results for “cra”

SFARI Winter 2019 Pilot awardees announced

SFARI is pleased to announce that it intends to fund 15 grants in response to the Winter 2019 Pilot Award request for applications (RFA).

SFARI announces 2018 Bridge to Independence awardees

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has selected four awardees in response to the 2018 Bridge to Independence Award request for applications. This program helps early-career scientists transition from mentored training positions to independent careers in autism research.

Peng Zhang, Ph.D.

Peng Zhang is an assistant professorCase Western Reserve University. He studies the role of HS 3-O-sulfation in neurexin-ligand binding and its effect on synaptic function in autism mouse models.

Characterization of medication use in a multicenter sample of pediatric inpatients with autism spectrum disorder.

Autism Innovative Medicine Studies-2-Trials (AIMS-2-Trials) — a European initiative to study autism — has launched

The Innovative Medicines Initiative, a European public-private initiative, recently awarded a €115 million five-year grant for autism research. The Autism Innovative Medicine Studies-2-Trials (AIMS-2-Trials) brings together 48 partners from academia, industry and nonprofit foundations, including SFARI.

A Conversation with Paul Wang, Deputy Director of Clinical Research Associates

Paul Wang, Deputy Director of Clinical Research Associates, L.L.C. (CRA), discusses the research that CRA supports, including human and animal studies using arbaclofen, a potential drug treatment for autism.

Impaired perceptual learning in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome is mediated by parvalbumin neuron dysfunction and is reversible.

Conserved neural mechanisms for social motivation in mice and humans

Rebecca Saxe will test whether midbrain dopaminergic signals of social cravings, previously observed in mice, are similarly observed in humans. As impairments in social motivation have been postulated to be a core social deficit in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), these results will improve the value of the mouse model for testing mechanisms of altered social motivation in ASD.

Evan Feinberg, Ph.D.

Evan Feinberg is an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and a member of the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience and the Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.

He received his undergraduate degree in biochemical sciences at Harvard University, where he worked with Craig Hunter on the molecular mechanisms underlying systemic spread of RNA interference in C. elegans. His doctoral studies were conducted at The Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Cori Bargmann, where he developed GRASP (GFP Reconstitution Across Synaptic Partners), a method that enables in vivo visualization of synapses between defined neurons.

Feinberg pursued postdoctoral training at Harvard University with Markus Meister, where he performed the first two-photon calcium imaging study of the superior colliculus and discovered its columnar functional architecture. The Feinberg lab studies sensorimotor integration using optical, genetic and behavioral methods in mice and has received research support from the E.M. Ziegler, Brain & Behavior Research and the Whitehall Foundation in addition to receiving a Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award.

Transgenerational mitochondrial mutations in autism spectrum disorder

The mitochondrial genome encodes genes critical for energy production within the brain. Many lines of evidence suggest that mitochondrial function may be impaired in autism. Neal Sondheimer will evaluate the association between mitochondrial mutations and their interactions with the nuclear genome and the risk for autism.