Vanderbilt Kennedy Center

A mutation associated with epilepsy and autism also is responsible for a “pale eye” trait in two rare genetic disorders, Angelman syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome, neuroscientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported this week.

Jeffrey Neul, M.D., Ph.D., division head of Child Neurology and vice chair for Developmental Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, will present a lecture on Friday, Dec. 16, at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC).

Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D., Wolf-Pack Chair in Neuroscience Research and director of the Center for Neuroscience Research with the Children’s Research Institute at Children’s National Medical Center, will present a lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC).

Stephen Camarata, Ph.D., professor of Hearing and Speech Sciences and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been invited to serve a four-year term on the Communication Disorders Review Committee (CDRC) of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).

Pablo Juárez, M.Ed., director of the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, has been named Educator of the Year by The Arc, the nation’s largest community-based organization advocating for and serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

The Science of Song symposium explored the use of music and singing to help people with developmental disabilities like autism improve their social skills, and others with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recover from the traumatic events they’ve experienced.

Led by the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Zachary Warren, associate professor of pediatrics, the SPARK study is looking for individuals of all ages with a professional diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to become part of the largest autism study ever undertaken in the United States.