Presidential Lectures

Betty Diamond discusses immune-system-mediated alterations in brain development, as part of the Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series.

Earth’s climate trajectory over the next few decades will be influenced by human-induced climate change and by internally generated variability in the climate system. Clara Deser’s lecture highlights the substantial contribution of internal variability to projected climate trends over North America in the next 50 years.

The genetics and genomics of autism spectrum disorders have reached a tipping point. The recent focus on de novo mutations has led to systematic, highly productive gene discovery efforts. These have begun to clarify a tremendously heterogeneous allelic architecture as well as specific genes contributing to social disability syndromes. This lecture will review these recent discoveries and address the challenges facing the path forward from reliable gene discovery to an actionable understanding of the molecular pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders.