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3919 CME Track- Autism across the Levels: Brain, Body, Behavior, Genes, Environment and Treatment (7 CME Credits Available for Physicians. This program is open for all.)

Thursday, July 10, 2008: 8:15 AM-5:15 PM

Miami 3 (Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center)

Autism Spectrum Disorders are complex and multileveled. Partial insights can be gained at many levels but real understanding and constructive impact will be greater when investigators and care-givers integrate approaches across the many levels that are impacted in this set of conditions. In this CME course speakers will cover advances in our understandings at these multiple levels, and then, together with the audience, will dialog about how to bring these levels together into a comprehensive approach that can maximally improve options and quality of life in autism. 8:15am - 10:00 - Keynote Speaker (with rest of conference attendees) - Dr. Bob
Hendren (Sun Ballroom)
Break and Reconvene in CME track meeting space
10:30 - 11:15 - Dr. Martha Herbert, Harvard/MassGeneral
Introduction to a Whole Body System Approach to Autism
11:15 - 12:00 - Dr. Frank Sharp - M.I.N.D. Institute Gene Expression Changes in Children with AutismThis presentation will explain how RNA expression in peripheral blood can be used to study the genetic effects of a disease and environmental factors that affect neurological and psychiatric diseases. The possible changes of RNA expression in the blood of children with autism compared to control children will be shown.Break for Lunch1:00 - 1:45 - Doreen Granpeesheh, CARDTreating the Whole Child: An Integration of Biomedical and Behavioral Interventions Treatment approaches grounded in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) are now considered to be at the forefront of educational interventions for children with autism. However, research supports a biomedical etiology for autism and while studies are conducted to identify exact biomedical pathways, many case studies point to successful outcome with biomedical treatments. While ABA and Biomedical practitioners have individually helped provide successful treatment models for autism, in developing a “Best Practices” Model, these interventions must work together to provide the best possibilities for successful outcome. Case studies will be presented in support of the behavioral-biomedical treatment model and recent research will be presented to show successful outcomes with these protocols. 1:45 - 2:30 - Dr. Amy Wetherby, Florida State UniversityBehavioral Markers of ASD Early in the Second Year: Implications for Early Intervention 2:30 - 3:15 - Dr. Emmanuelle Tognoli, Florida Atlantic University (in collaboration with Dr. Scott Kelso, FAU)Neuromarkers of social behavior: paving the way to electrophysiological endophenotypes of autismBREAK3:30 - 4:15 - Dr. Ken BockClinical Approaches to Detoxification in Children with Autism Spectrum DisordersIt is believed that environmental triggers, specifically toxicant exposures, coupled with genetic vulnerabilities have contributed to the dramatic increasing incidence of ASD in the past 2+ decades. Specifically, an impaired ability to detoxify these increasing toxic exposures may be particularly important. On a clinical level, approaches to enhanced detoxification have appeared to contribute to improvements in many children with autism spectrum disorder and will be discussed in this lecture. 4:15 - 5:00 - Panel discussion with all speakers (Frank Sharp has to leavebefore this)

Content Area: Medicine and Research

Presenters:

Martha R. Herbert, Ph.D., M.D.
Assistant Professor, Neurology (Pediatric)
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Martha R. Herbert is a pediatric neurologist researching large brains and changes in brain function in autism, functional changes in systemic metabolism and their potential relation to brain, and systems models of autism. Other presentations include ASA (2006 keynote), Institute of Medicine, Society for Neuroscience, Child Neurology Society, and Neurotoxicology.

Frank Sharp, M.D.
UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute

An internationally renowned clinical neurologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Sharp joined the UC Davis and M.I.N.D. Institute faculty in June 2004. Research in his laboratory focuses on molecular neurobiology, genomics, neural cell injury and cell death and the blood genomics of neurological disease. Prior to his appointment at UC Davis, Dr. Sharp had a distinguished clinical and research career at UC San Diego, UC San Francisco and the University of Cincinnati, making groundbreaking contributions to new fields of study and new insights into brain function and disease. Among these contributions were: first laboratory to show proof of principle for using blood genomics to detect pathological events in the animal and human brain, paved the way for performing PET and fMRI studies in humans, and first to demonstrate that a transcription factor can be used to map active neurons. Dr. Sharp is currently on the editorial boards of several journals, has been a standing member of the AHA Brain grant review committee, and is a permanent member of the NINDS NSDA review Committee.

Doreen Granpeesheh, Ph.D., BCBA
Founder, Clinical Director
Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Dr. Granpeesheh founded the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) in 1990, which treats thousands of children. She is a principal member of Thoughtful House Center for Children and First Vice-Chair of the Autism Society of America, and serves on the DAN! Executive Council and the Scientific Advisory Board of USAAA.

Amy Wetherby, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Laurel Schendel Professor & Executive Director
Center for Autism and Related Disabilities- Florida State University

Dr. Wetherby is the Laurel Schendel Professor in the Department of Communication Disorders at Florida State University. She has had over twenty years of clinical experience in the design and implementation of communication programs for children with autism and severe communication impairments and is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Dr. Wetherby's research has focused on communicative and cognitive-social aspects of language problems in children with autism, and more recently, on the early identification of children with communication impairments. She has published extensively on these topics and presents regularly at national conventions. She is a co-author of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (with Barry Prizant). Dr. Wetherby is the Project Director of the FIRST WORDS Project, funded by a U.S. Department of Education Field-Initiated Research Grant and Model Demonstration Grant on early identification of communication disorders in infants and toddlers. She is also the Project Co-Director (with Juliann Woods) of the Early Social Interaction Project funded by a U.S. Department of Education Model Demonstration Grant. She served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee for Educational Interventions for Children with Autism and is the Executive Director of the Florida State University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.

Emmanuelle Tognoli
Research Assistant Professor, Center For Complex Systems
Florida Atlantic University

Kenneth A. Bock, M.D., FAAFP, FACN, CNS
Co-founder and Co-director
Rhinebeck Health Center

Kenneth A. Bock, M.D., received his medical degree with Honor in 1979. He is the author of Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies. Dr. Bock’s Healing Program is at the vanguard of the new biomedical approach to the treatment of children affected by autism spectrum disorders.

Tim Buie, M.D.
Pediatric Gastroenterologist
Massachusetts General Hospital

is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and Tufts School of Medicine. He works in the Massachusetts General Hospital developmental clinic LADDERS. He has cared for children with ASD for over 15 years.

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