This initiative started in 2016 and is led by Drs. Eric Morrow and Stephen Sheinkopf. The long-term vision of the Precision Medicine Program is to provide comprehensive assessments of children with an established or suspected diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. These assessments include evaluations by a multidisciplinary team including pediatricians, geneticists, psychologists, neurodevelopment specialists, genetic counselors, and ethicists. Families are then followed annually to assess the clinical and life course to identify genetic and epigenetic markers, as well as other biomarkers, that can help predict outcomes and guide individualized approaches to treatments.
Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute
Autism and Precision Medicine
Key Projects
1. Genes-first Approach to Precision Medicine in Autism
These studies work towards developing an international registry for Christianson Syndrome, developing convergence across genetic subtypes and using precision medicine in autism clinics.
2. Biomarker Development for Measures of Treatment Response and Prognosis in Autism (The PHOEBE study)
This study develops biomarkers in order to better define the heterogeneity of ASD, including markers that can be used to predict outcomes and improve measurement of treatment response.
3. The Prospective Infant Behavior Study (PIBS)
This study examines behaviors in newborns that may be related to developmental delays.
4. Play and Autism
This project is a unique partnership with the Toy Design Program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City to develop and implement a curriculum on developing toys appropriate for children with autism.
5. The Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment (RI-CART)
This study explores better ways for physicians, scientists, service providers, educators and parents to collaborate on a broad range of autism-related research.
Autism News
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News from The Hassenfeld Institute
Hassenfeld Institute to Resume In-Person Recruitment for Postnatal Study
Researchers with the Hassenfeld Institute are gearing up to resume in-person recruitment for their autism study after a lengthy hiatus due to COVID-19.
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Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
Trains and Outer Space—The Unique Worlds Within Autism
"Outer Space," a punk song written and recorded by the Autism Initiative's Daniel Moreno De Luca, MD, MSc, was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), along with an essay, which Dr. Moreno De Luca says emphasizes "the humanity of not only the kiddos and adults with autism we see, but also of the clinicians." Read the essay and listen to the song.
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News from The Hassenfeld Institute
Exhibit Showcases Art by People with Autism
The works of dozens of artists with autism makes up the fourth-annual Through Our Eyes exhibit, an art show organized by the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment and held at the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket
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