Potholes and Progress on the Road to Translational Treatments in Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Speaker
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Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D.Columbia University Irving Medical Center
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Presidential Lectures are free public colloquia centered on four main themes: Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and Neuroscience and Autism Science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are intended to foster discourse and drive discovery among the broader NYC-area research community. We invite those interested in the topic to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Emerging genomic and neuroscience findings have delivered hypotheses that are now being tested in autism spectrum disorder and related genetic syndromes. Unfortunately, these clinical trials have not yet yielded positive results, suggesting a need to step back and evaluate the science of testing new treatments for neurodevelopmental disorders.
In this lecture, Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele will outline critical challenges, both conceptual and practical, to translating genomic, cellular, and animal model research into new treatments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He will discuss the limitations to conclusions drawn from work in the laboratory as they are extrapolated to the clinic. He will also describe common pitfalls in clinical trials, including mismatches between hypotheses and study populations, substantial “placebo” effects, and subjective outcome measures. Framing these challenges in the context of past successes in ASD treatment research, he will suggest guideposts as we work toward neurobiologically based treatments for ASD.