Chapter 3 Autism BrainNet

Publication date: 2018 Source:Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Volume 150 Author(s): David G. Amaral, Matthew P. Anderson, Olaf Ansorge, Steven Chance, Carolyn Hare, Patrick R. Hof, Melissa Miller, Ikue Nagakura, Jane Pickett, Cynthia Schumann, Carol Tamminga Autism spectrum disorder (ASD or autism) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects over 1% of the population worldwide. Developing effective preventions and treatments for autism will depend on understanding the genetic perturbations and underlying neuropathology of the disorder. While evidence from magnetic resonance imaging and other noninvasive techniques points to altered development and organization of the autistic brain, these tools lack the resolution for identifying the cellular and molecular underpinnings of the disorder. Postmortem studies of high-quality human brain tissue currently represent the only viable option to pursuing these types of studies. However, the availability of high-quality ASD brain tissue has been extremely limited. Here we describe the establishment of a privately funded tissue bank, Autism BrainNet, a network of brain collection sites that work in a coordinated fashion to develop an adequate library of human postmortem brain tissues. Autism BrainNet was initiated as a collaboration between the Simons Foundation and Autism Speaks, and is currently funded by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. Autism BrainNet has collection sites (nodes) in California, Texas, ...
Source: Handbook of Clinical Neurology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research