Five years ago, Philadelphia was not on the map when it came to researching one of the most mysterious and expensive childhood medical conditions of our time. Now it is among the top cities in the nation, with expertise in nearly all the key fields - genetics, environmental exposure, brain imaging, behavioral interventions - that are critical for finding causes and developing treatments.
Most of the local talent is at the Center for Autism Research at Children's Hospital, which in less than four years has grown into a powerhouse with more than 100 researchers and staff running two dozen studies.
Drexel is jumping in with a much smaller but ambitious Autism Public Health Research Institute, which is poised to lead in some other areas, beginning with environmental exposure. The long-neglected field has suddenly become a priority as evidence builds that genes alone do not explain the disorder.
The goal is to figure out what flips the genetic switch that puts some infants on a path to autism. Only then can scientists begin to understand how the brain changes and what can prevent it, discover treatments, and devise cost-effective ways to teach hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren.
"It takes a community to do this," said Nancy Minshew, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Autism - the most serious of the Autism Spectrum Disorders, with Asperger's syndrome among the higher-functioning forms - is a developmental disability defined by a set of psychological impairments that typically show up by 18 months.
