Autism

One out of every 88 children in the United States will develop autism sometime during the first three years of life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In late March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report estimating that about one out of every 88 children was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in 2008. That’s a more than 20 percent increase from 2006 and a spike that’s dominated recent headlines nationwide.

On a Wednesday last April, Valerie Hu, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), eagerly anticipated the release of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) study that she authored and that appeared in the online science journal PLoS One.

WASHINGTON (April  27, 2011) — By dividing individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) into four subtypes according to similarity of symptoms and reanalyzing existing genome-wide genetic data on these individuals vs. controls, researchers at the George Washington University School of…

A new study by Valerie Hu, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, offers some clues into the mystery of why autism is four times more common in males than in females.

George Washington University researcher Dr. Valerie Hu, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and her team at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, have found that male and female sex hormones regulate expression of an important gene in neuronal cell culture through a mechanism…