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M N N S E M I N A R & V I S I T I N G S P E A K E R S E R I E S
D A T E
Monday, April 29, 2019
10am
L O C A T I O N
Theatre C, BMSB
Bannatyne Campus
S P E A K E R
Idan Menashe, PhD
School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences,
Negev Autism Center
Ben-Gurion University
T O P I C
Deciphering the etiological puzzle of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
results from the Negev Autism Center
O B J E C T I V E S
1. Introduce the current challenges in ASD research
2. Discuss the activities and research findings of the Negev Autism
Center
A B S T R A C T
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a remarkably heterogeneous condition with
multiple genetic and non-genetic causes leading to a wide variety of
phenotypic outcomes. Elucidating the heterogeneous etiological puzzle of
autism requires comprehensive longitudinal data acquisition from large
community based cohorts. With this in mind, we have established the Negev
Autism Center (NAC), which comprises clinicians from Soroka University
Medical Center (SUMC) and scientists from Ben-Gurion University (BGU). In
this initiative, we collect comprehensive behavioral, clinical, neurological
and biological data on all children who are referred to SUMC with a
suspicion of autism. Moreover, children with a positive diagnosis of autism
are invited to the SUMC clinics for follow-up visits every 6 to 12 months
until the age six. During these visits, their diagnosis is re-evaluated and
families are invited to participate in additional ongoing experiments. The
wide variety of data collected from each child with ASD and his family,
enable us to synthesize findings across different clinical and biological
disciplines in order to connect the dots between specific risk factors
through associated brain abnormalities to precise behavioral and cognitive
phenotypes in various subtypes of autism. Such an understanding of ASD is
essential for translating the science into personalized treatments for the
disorder. In this seminar, I will introduce the current challenges in ASD
research and discuss recent research findings from the NAC. Specifically, I
will introduce new approaches for digital phenotyping of children with ASD
that can accelerate both research and diagnosis of ASD. In addition, I will
present new insights regarding the genetics of ASD as well as potential
environmental risk factors of the disorder. Finally, I will talk about the
future goals of the NAC.
B I O S K E T C H:
Dr. Menashe, earned his PhD in Human Genetics and Bioinformatics from the
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel in 2007. He then completed four years
of post-doctoral fellowship in the Biostatistics Branch of the Division of
Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute, USA and
one year as a senior scientist at MindSpec, a nonprofit organization that
utilizes innovative bioinformatics strategies to accelerate research on
common neurodevelopmental disorders. In 2012, Dr. Menashe joined the Faculty
of Health Sciences and the Zlotowski center for neuroscience at the
Ben-Gurion University (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel as an assistant professor.
At BGU Dr. Menashe is the head of the genetic epidemiology team at the
school of public health. In addition, Dr. Menashe is a co-founder of the
Negev Autism Center (www.negevautism.org), which is the leading autism
research center in Israel. At the Negev Autism Center, Dr. Menashe and his
colleagues collect and analyze comprehensive clinical, behavioral and
biological data from hundreds of children with autism with the goal to
elucidate the etiology of autism and its variable phenotypic manifestations.
For more information, please visit: www.idanmen.com
<file:///C:\Users\kjorund\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary%20Intern
et%20Files\Content.Outlook\US4Z0TRO\www.idanmen.com>
For more information, contact the MNN office @ 204.235.3939
Tabrez Siddiqui
Chair, MNN Seminar Series
E: Tabrez.siddiqui(a)umanitoba.ca
Kelly Jorundson
Coordinator, Membership & Operations
Manitoba Neuroscience Network
Room R4046 - 351 Taché Avenue,
Winnipeg, MB R2H 2A6 CANADA
Email: <mailto:kjorund@sbrc.ca> kjorund(a)sbrc.ca
Tel: 204.235.3939 Fax: 204.237.4092
.
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