L-R: Paige Siper, PhD (Chief Psychologist of the Seaver Autism Center), Anna-Carin Säll-Grahnat, Karin Dellenvall, Joseph Buxbaum, PhD, Christina Hultman, PhD, Birgitta Ohlander, Bozenna Iliadou, Ann-Britt Holmgren, Gun Karlsson, and Sven Sandin, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai).
Yesterday the Seaver Autism Center hosted a visit for nurses in Sweden who work on the Population-based Autism Genetics and Environment Study (PAGES), funded by the National Institutes of Health. Led by Joseph D. Buxbaum, PhD, Director of the Seaver Autism Center, this study is a collaboration between the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden). The study uses a population-based epidemiological sample with detailed demographic and environmental information to assess the role of inherited and de novo, or genetic, variants in autism. The researchers also evaluate rare standing variation in autism, while integrating key environmental variables.
As part of this study, hundreds of samples are collected every year by this group of talented nurses from the Karolinska Institutet, led by Christina Hultman, PhD. During the visit at Mount Sinai, the group participated in meetings to discuss psychiatric genetics with a focus on autism, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and related disorders, and the preclinical and clinical researchprograms at the Seaver Autism Center. The group from the Karolinska Institutet and Seaver researchers alike enjoyed the opportunity to meet and discuss their work.