With regard to your research finding of an epigenetic signature of autism, can you tell me what this means for early diagnosis and treatment?
Schahram Akbarian, M.D., Ph.D.
Presently, our findings have no implications yet for early diagnosis and treatment. Like all other research, our findings will have to await replication and confirmation by independent research groups. Furthermore, we studied brain specimens that were provided by the Autism Tissue Program. To find out whether our findings in the brain specimens are useful for early diagnosis and treatment, we would first need to find out if there are similar epigenetic signatures of disease in blood or skin cells that then could be tested in a clinical setting.
Schahram Akbarian, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Council Member
1993, 2000 NARSAD Young Investigator Grantee
1997 Klerman Prizewinner
Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Chief of the Division of Psychiatric Epigenomics
Mount Sinai School of Medicine