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Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders
Board on Health Sciences Policy
Autism and the Environment:
Challenges and Opportunities for Research
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Keck Building, Room 100
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Workshop Objectives
Discuss the most promising scientific opportunities for improving the understanding of potential environmental factors in autism. Discuss what scientific tools and technologies are available, what interdisciplinary research approaches are needed, and what further infrastructure investments will be necessary in the short- and long-term to be able to explore potential relationships between autism and environmental factors. Explore potential partnerships needed to support and conduct autism research.
8:00 a.m. Welcome, Introductions, and Workshop Objectives
Alan Leshner
Workshop and Forum Chair
Chief Executive Officer, AAAS
Executive Publisher, Science
8:05 a.m. Charge to Workshop Participants
William Raub
Science Advisor to the Secretary
Department of Health and Human Services
8:15 a.m. Perspectives of the Advocacy Community
Laura Bono
Workshop Planning Committee Member
Board Member
National Autism Association
SESSION I: Autism – The Clinical Problem: “What do we know? What do we need?”
Session Objective: Describe the problem and discuss how environmental factors may impact a developmental disorder like autism. Identify what standards of evidence are needed to move forward.
Sarah Spence, Session Chair
Staff Clinician
Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
8:25 a.m. Clinical Overview: How can the clinical manifestations of autism shed light on potential environmental etiologies?
Susan Swedo
Senior Investigator
Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
8:45 a.m. Genes and the Environment: How may genetics be used to inform research searching for potential environmental triggers?
Pat Levitt
Director, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development
Vanderbilt University
9:05 a.m. How may Environmental Factors Impact Potential Mechanisms in Humans?
Isaac Pessah
Director, Children’s Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention
University of California, Davis M.I.N.D. Institute
9:25 a.m. Defining Autism: Biomarkers and other research tools
Martha Herbert
Assistant Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School
9:45 a.m. Discussion
Sarah Spence, Session Chair
Staff Clinician
Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
10:20 a.m. BREAK
SESSION II: Lessons Learned from Other Disorders: “Standards of Evidence”
Session Objective: Explore how the autism field may employ approaches and strategies utilized by other fields. What has been learned from research that has examined environmental exposure effects on other disorders?
David Schwartz, Session Chair
Director
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH
10:35 a.m. Environmental Toxicants and Neurodevelopment
Philip Landrigan
Chair of Community and Preventive Medicine
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
10:55 a.m. Prenatal Starvation and Schizophrenia
Ezra Susser
Gelman Professor and Chair of Epidemiology
Mailman School of Public Health
Professor of Psychiatry
Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute
11:15 a.m. Asthma
Fernando Martinez
Swift-McNear Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Arizona Respiratory Center
University of Arizona
11:35 a.m. Discussion
David Schwartz, Session Chair
Director
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH
12:10 p.m. LUNCH
SESSION III: Environment and Biology I: What are the Tools for Autism – What do we have? What do we need?
Session Objective: Review how environmental factors can impact fundamental biological processes. Examine the resources available, and needed, to examine susceptibility to environmental agents.
Pat Levitt, Session Chair
Director, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development
Vanderbilt University
1:00 p.m. How may Environmental Factors Impact Potential Molecular and Epigenetic Mechanisms?
Art Beaudet
Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics
Baylor College of Medicine
1:20 p.m. How may Environmental Factors Impact Potential Cell Based Mechanisms?
Mark Noble
Professor of Genetics
University of Rochester Medical Center
1:40 p.m. How Animal Models may be used to Examine Potential Environmental-based Mechanisms
Theodore Slotkin
Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
Duke University Medical Center
2:00 p.m. BREAK
2:20 p.m. Autism, Infection and Immunity: What are the potential causative environmental factors and how can they be identified and prioritized?
W. Ian Lipkin
Director, Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory
Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University and
Scientific Director, Northeast Biodefense Center
2:40 p.m. Environmental Factors and Oxidative Stress: How may oxidative stress impact the biology of autism? What factors may be causing this outcome?
Jill James
Professor of Pediatrics
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
3:00 p.m. Discussion
Pat Levitt, Session Chair
Director, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development
Vanderbilt University
SESSION IV: New Approaches and Discussion
4:20 p.m. Discussion with Meeting Participants and Audience
Alan Leshner, Moderator
Workshop and Forum Chair
Chief Executive Officer, AAAS
Executive Publisher, Science
5:30 p.m. ADJOURN
~ Thursday, April 19, 2007 ~
Keck Building, Room 100
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
SESSION V: Environmental Epidemiology – Utilizing Population-based Studies to Isolate the Environmental Causes of Autism
Session objective: Discuss and identify what resources are available and what is needed to help frame future directions for environmental epidemiology studies.
Henry Falk, Session Chair
Director
Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
8:00 a.m. Environmental Epidemiology Studies: New techniques and technologies to use epidemiology to find environmental triggers.
Irva Hertz-Picciotto
Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
University of California, Davis
8:20 a.m. Environmental Exposures in Autism: International studies
Craig Newschaffer
Professor and Chairman of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Drexel University
8:40 a.m. Environmental Epidemiology Studies: CADDRE
Diana Schendel
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
9:00 a.m. Prenatal and Perinatal Exposures
Allen Wilcox
Chief, Epidemiology Branch
NIEHS
9:20 a.m. Discussion
Henry Falk, Session Chair
Director
Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
SESSION VI: Technology and Infrastructure Needs for Future Research
Session Objective: Discuss and identify what tools are currently available to assess environmental exposure, and what additional scientific tools and technologies are needed in the short- and long-term.
Henry Falk, Session Chair
Director
Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
9:50 a.m. CDC Environmental Health Lab – Body Burden Measures
Larry Needham
Chief, Organic Analytical Toxicology Branch
National Center for Environmental Health, CDC
10:10 a.m. Personalized Environmental Sensors
David Walt
Professor of Chemistry
Tufts University
10:30 a.m. Discussion
Henry Falk, Session Chair
Director
Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
11:00 a.m. BREAK
SESSION VII: Future Research Directions – Discussion with workshop speakers
Session Objective: Discuss what a research agenda for autism and the environment might look like.
11:00 a.m.
Fernando Martinez
Swift-McNear Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Arizona Respiratory Center
University of Arizona
Isaac Pessah
Director, Children’s Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention
University of California, Davis M.I.N.D. Institute
12:30 p.m. LUNCH
SESSION VIII: Public-Private Partnerships
Session Objective: Identify the unique strengths that the public and private sectors provide to the autism research. Discuss how each of these sectors can most effectively compliment each others efforts.
Alan Leshner, Moderator
Workshop and Forum Chair
Chief Executive Officer, AAAS
1:00 p.m. Panel Discussion
Sallie Bernard
Board Member, Autism Speaks
Co-Founder, SafeMinds
Henry Falk
Director
Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Gary Goldstein
Chair, Autism Speaks Scientific Affairs Committee
President and Chief Executive Officer, Kennedy Krieger Institute
Tom Insel
Director
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
Lyn Redwood
Board Member and Science Committee Chair
National Autism Association
David Schwartz
Director
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH
1:45 p.m. General Panel Discussion
Alan Leshner, Moderator
Workshop and Forum Chair
Chief Executive Officer, AAAS
SESSION IX: Discussion with Meeting Participants and Audience
2:15 p.m. Alan Leshner, Moderator
Workshop and Forum Chair
Chief Executive Officer, AAAS
Executive Publisher, Science
3:15 p.m. ADJOURN
NOTE: These are unedited audiofiles of the Workshop on Autism and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for Research, held on April 18-19, 2007, and is not an official report of National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, or the National Research Council (collectively the “National Academies”) Opinions and statements included in the transcript are solely those of the individual persons or participants at the workshop, and are not necessarily adopted or endorsed or verified as accurate by the National Academies.
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