Newswise — Experts at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School's Autism Center are developing new chip technology that will help diagnose autism; directing a New Jersey population-based autism monitoring system; and expanding professional and community outreach and educational activities.
These efforts may help us better understand the developmental disorder and revolutionize care for the estimated 67 million people around the world affected by autism.
As World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD), on April 2, nears and attention is focused on this global crisis, the following UMDNJ experts are available to share their expertise:
- Peter Tolias, Ph.D., is research director of the Autism Center and professor of pediatrics at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. He is also executive director of the Institute of Genomic Medicine at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and president of NeuroMark Inc., a privately-owned molecular diagnostic company focused on neurospsychiatric disorders. The IGM is offering testing services to the Autism Center and one of its investigators has filed a provisional patent for a new chip technology that will help diagnose sporadic autism.
- Walter Zahorodny, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, has 20 years experience as a clinical psychologist working with children at risk for developmental delay, including autism. He is director of the New Jersey Autism Study, a population-based autism monitoring system. His research group is investigating the PDQ-1 (Psychological Development Questionnaire for Toddlers), a tool for identifying children at risk for autism between the ages of 18 and 36 months, and is using a comprehensive autism database, the New Jersey Answers for Autism Survey, to discover autism risk factors, specify autism subgroups and determine the most effective treatments for children with autism. His research interests include autism risk factors and early identification of children with autism.
- B. Madeleine Goldfarb, M.A., became an advocate for children and families with autism after the diagnosis of her son with autism spectrum disorder in 1996. Goldfarb is the director of outreach and education for the Autism Center, coordinating a wide range of outreach and educational activities for the professional community as well as the general public. Her programs emphasize the ongoing communication of current research and therapeutic advances in the field of autism, as well as family-centered programs. Goldfarb also has written important autism legislation, both federally and locally, and serves on the New Jersey Governor's Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with nearly 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
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