2021 SCAND Virtual Symposium
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Keynote Talk:
"Developmental science meets public health challenge: lessons from autism in infants and toddlers." Ami Klin, PhD
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This presentation highlights the critical role of early diagnosis and intervention in attenuating the symptoms and in optimizing outcomes of toddlers with autism. Data will be presented on early diagnostic indicators obtained through eye-tracking-based behavioral assays that quantify the social disabilities in autism. The results of these assays were used to generate "growth charts" of normative social engagement, and the deviations from the norm were taken as early indicators of risk. These methods yielded high sensitivity and specificity for the screening of infants and toddlers. The ultimate goal of this effort is to develop objective and quantitative tools for the detection of autism in infancy and toddlerhood, tools that might be deployed in primary care practices. This work will be contextualized in terms of recent developmental social neuroscience research with toddlers with autism, which implicated developmentally very early emerging, and evolutionarily highly conserved, mechanisms of social adaptation that set the stage for reciprocal social interaction, which in term represent the platform for early social brain development. These mechanisms of socialization are under stringent genetic control, setting the scientific basis for parent-delivered, community-viable, early treatment in which social engagement is “engineered” via daily activities, thus impacting a child’s development during every moment of social interaction.
Dr. Ami Klin is the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Professor, The Bernie Marcus Distinguished Chair in Autism, and Chief of the Division of Autism and Developmental Disabilities at Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, and Director of the Marcus Autism Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of London, and completed clinical and research post-doctoral fellowships at the Yale University School of Medicine. He directed the Autism Program at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine until 2010, where he was the Harris Professor of Child Psychology & Psychiatry. The Marcus Autism Center is one of the largest centers of clinical care in the country, providing a broad range of diagnostic and treatment services. Collaborative projects include several departments at Emory and others institutions such as the CDC and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, as well as care-providing agencies in the community. The Center also provides training in a broad range of disciplines, and is strongly committed to advocacy at the local, national and international levels. Dr. Klin’s primary research activities focus on social mind and social brain, and on developmental aspects of autism from infancy through adulthood. These studies include novel techniques such as the eye-tracking laboratories co-directed with Warren Jones, which allow researchers to see the world through the eyes of individuals with autism. These techniques are now being applied in the screening of toddlers at risk for autism. He is the author of over 250 publications in the field of autism and related conditions.
Dr. Ami Klin is the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Professor, The Bernie Marcus Distinguished Chair in Autism, and Chief of the Division of Autism and Developmental Disabilities at Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, and Director of the Marcus Autism Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of London, and completed clinical and research post-doctoral fellowships at the Yale University School of Medicine. He directed the Autism Program at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine until 2010, where he was the Harris Professor of Child Psychology & Psychiatry. The Marcus Autism Center is one of the largest centers of clinical care in the country, providing a broad range of diagnostic and treatment services. Collaborative projects include several departments at Emory and others institutions such as the CDC and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, as well as care-providing agencies in the community. The Center also provides training in a broad range of disciplines, and is strongly committed to advocacy at the local, national and international levels. Dr. Klin’s primary research activities focus on social mind and social brain, and on developmental aspects of autism from infancy through adulthood. These studies include novel techniques such as the eye-tracking laboratories co-directed with Warren Jones, which allow researchers to see the world through the eyes of individuals with autism. These techniques are now being applied in the screening of toddlers at risk for autism. He is the author of over 250 publications in the field of autism and related conditions.
2017 SCAND Research Symposium
The first South Carolina Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SCAND) Symposium on October 9th, 2017 was an incredible success! In keeping with SCAND’s mission to create a state-wide, multi-disciplinary collaboration, there were 110 people in attendance from 14 institutions and organizations all throughout SC. Highlights of the event included:
Overall, the first SCAND Symposium was a great step forward in its aim to drive research excellence and foster multi-disciplinary collaboration in South Carolina. From an anonymous post-retreat survey of participants, there was an overwhelming response to have an annual symposium, so we are now looking forward to the second annual SCAND Symposium in Charleston on October 12th, 2018!
- Two South Carolina state legislators, Representative James Smith and Senator Tom Davis, who spoke about policy issues which are integral to supporting all families in obtaining much-needed services.
- Keynote address by Dr. Marsha Mailick of U. Wisconsin-Madison. Her talk on FMR1 CGG Expansions was enlightening and highlighted the complexity of neurodevelopment which often includes looking at family and social environments.
- 41 poster presentations which allowed researchers, professors, post-docs, graduate students and undergraduates to highlight their areas of expertise.
- 16 “blitz sessions” in which attendees took the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves and their work to the entire group.
Overall, the first SCAND Symposium was a great step forward in its aim to drive research excellence and foster multi-disciplinary collaboration in South Carolina. From an anonymous post-retreat survey of participants, there was an overwhelming response to have an annual symposium, so we are now looking forward to the second annual SCAND Symposium in Charleston on October 12th, 2018!