Books to Bench to Bedside Informatics for Autism Research

May 31, 2006 - Isaac Kohane, Lawrence J. Henderson Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Health Sciences and Technology; Associate Professor of Medicine, HMS/Children's Hospital

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a socio-cognitive disorder which has a high (up to 1% by some estimates) prevalence in our society. More controversially, ASD is reported to be on the increase. Less controversially, ASD is known to have a strong inherited component as well as an environmental component. And yet, despite decades of research, precious little is understood about the causes of this disorder and existing therapies are often unsatisfactory. Notwithstanding, the genomic revolution offers the potential for some novel insights and therapies. The seminar will review the challenges and the solutions that computational approaches bring to a systematic understanding of ASD. The integrative role of computing in synthesizing insights from the genome, bibliome, imaging and other measurement modalities is reviewed and a broader role for computing in the investigation of complex diseases is proposed.