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Autism conference presents new research by Dick Peterson Special to The Catalyst Conference director Jane Charles, M.D., said she was “astounded” at the turnout Thursday (Nov. 3) to Charleston’s first scientific symposium on autism. “Nothing like this has been done in South Carolina before.”   The ballroom at the Doubletree Hotel on Church Street was packed with rows of extra seating added to accommodate the overflow. Charles said that many in the audience were teachers. “They are not all medical people,” she said.   Intended to become an annual event, Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorders was a day-long conference, presented by the Division of Genetics and Developmental Pediatrics and co-sponsored by the Office of Continuing Medical Education and the Office of Nursing Continuing Education, College of Nursing. The conference included presentations by some of the nation’s leading experts in autism.   “We wanted to present what’s new in research and we wanted topnotch researchers,” Charles said. “And we achieved that.” She said that the speakers invited to present at the conference are leading voices in research and treatment of autism disorders. “They are the authors I read.”   Charles explained that autism is a complex neuro-developmental disorder that presents in a spectrum of related disorders. In the absence of a biological marker, autism spectrum disorder is defined behaviorally. Its clinical presentation is characterized by impairments in reciprocal social interaction and in communication with others, and by a preference for repetitive, stereotyped behaviors.   “Many of the speakers here today have done brain research and behavioral intervention. One is looking at infant siblings of children with autism and follows them from birth to find the early symptoms that might otherwise be missed.” With only behavioral cues with which to diagnose autism, the disorder is seldom diagnosed until age 3 to about 5.   “If we can find symptoms before 12 months and intervene then, we may have a greater impact on the outcome,” Charles said. Ideally, brain imaging studies involving thousands of children would yield valuable information leading to early detection. She said that while the technology is available, an adequate volume of study subjects and the funding to conduct the research is not.   She said that if a biomarker for autism could be found, universal screening could well become possible. “We screen for lots of other metabolic disorders. We screen for congenital hearing loss. We could screen for some biomarker for autism.”   Charles said that most likely there is both a genetic and an environmental component to the disorder, probably a genetic predisposition that can be triggered environmentally. She said that methyl mercury found in some fresh water fish in South Carolina is known to cause developmental problems in children and is being studied as a factor in autism.   The conference was presented in lecture format with question and answer sessions. Conference faculty included: David Amoral, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and director of M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California—Davis, Sacramento; Timothy H. Buie, M.D., pediatric gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School—Ladders, Wellesley, Mass.; Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychology and director of Autism Center at the Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle; Rebecca Landa, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Md.; and Tristram Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y.   For information on autism, call 876-1516 or visit http://children.musc.edu/health_library/growth/autism.htm. Friday, Nov. 18, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by e-mail to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.