AHMEDABAD: Just over a fortnight ago, a German man took eight injections and got hooked up to a machine for five-odd hours while peripheral blood stem cells were collected. These were put on a flight and sent to the city-based Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI) to give a 50-year-old housewife - Kesar Devi - a fresh lease life. Even as news of an Indian donor ditching Stanford University professor Nalini Ambady, battling for life after a leukemia relapse, hit the headlines recently, Gujarat has recorded its first matched unrelated donor transplantation using stems cells of an international donor. Kesar Devi was diagnosed with blood cancer last year. After chemotherapy, her cancer resurfaced recently. Stem cell transplantation was the next line of treatment. Unfortunately, both her brother and sister did not turn out to be a perfect match as donors. No donor was found on the two Indian registries, which has 20,000 donors each. Since GCRI had registered with German bone marrow donor registry DKMS, her data was uploaded. She found a single match in the German man who donated his stem cells. In fact, two other blood cancer patients have also found their matching donors in the German registry. On … Continue reading →

Families for Effective Autism Treatment 2010 By: April Brown Auctioneer … Continue reading →

Kelly Kausel on Supporting $12 million Funding for Early Intervention Autism Treatment Kelly Kausel shares her son's story on getting the autism services he needs and making it a requirement for private insurers to provide this coverage. By: TheArcGTC … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES (AP) In an effort to find a treatment for autism, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, are leading a $9 million experiment that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs within weeks rather than years. It's part of a push by the National Institutes of Health to fast-track the pace of discovery that hopefully will lead to new therapies for several neurological disorders. Besides autism, the federal agency is also backing rapid efforts to seek treatments for schizophrenia and mood and anxiety disorders. Typically, the path to getting drugs approved is long and costly and often littered with setbacks. The goal of this new approach is to test several potential drugs in small groups of people and then decide which one merits further investigation. "We need to quickly and accurately identify which ones are really ready" for prime time, UCLA lead investigator Dr. James McCracken said in a statement. UCLA is working with other medical centers to pinpoint promising drugs for autism, a spectrum of disorders affecting a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. Autism advocacy groups welcomed the latest effort, saying it may lead to new treatments faster. "The earlier you can know … Continue reading →

A simple blood test might be able to reveal whether a child has autism, according to researchers who recently launched a study to evaluate such a test. The study, which began this week and involves 660 participants at 20 facilities around the United States, will examine whether the test can accurately distinguish betweenchildren who have autismand children who have other developmental delays, the researchers said. While the blood test by itself cannot diagnose an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the researchers hope it will speed up the time it takes to diagnose the condition, which can be a lengthy process. "If a blood test could indicate ASD risk, it would help families and physicians know when to refer children to an ASD expert, potentially leading to earlier treatment and better outcomes," Dr. Jeremy Veenstra VanderWeele, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University, said in a statement. The study is being funded by SynapDx, the company that hopes to develop and market the test. Autism spectrum disordersare a range of developmental disorders characterized by social impairment, language difficulties and repetitive behaviors. Currently, ASD is diagnosed by evaluating a person's behavior and taking into account their medical history. The new test could … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In an effort to find a treatment for autism, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, are leading a $9 million experiment that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs within weeks rather than years. It's part of a push by the National Institutes of Health to fast-track the pace of discovery that hopefully will lead to new therapies for several neurological disorders. Besides autism, the federal agency is also backing rapid efforts to seek treatments for schizophrenia and mood and anxiety disorders. Typically, the path to getting drugs approved is long and costly and often littered with setbacks. The goal of this new approach is to test several potential drugs in small groups of people and then decide which one merits further investigation. "We need to quickly and accurately identify which ones are really ready" for prime time, UCLA lead investigator Dr. James McCracken said in a statement. UCLA is working with other medical centers to pinpoint promising drugs for autism, a spectrum of disorders affecting a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. Autism advocacy groups welcomed the latest effort, saying it may lead to new treatments faster. "The earlier you can … Continue reading →

HIAWATHA, Iowa- Parents of children diagnosed with autism will soon have some new treatment options. A well-known, Des Moines-area program is opening up a first-ever facility in eastern Iowa. The Homestead will operate a Childrens Autism Project office at 1661 Boyson Square Dr. in Hiawatha. Organizers expect up to 30 children will take part in the intensive programming when actual clinical work starts in about three weeks. Steve Muller, executive director of The Homestead, said the treatment services they offer are geared specifically to people diagnosed with autism. The program began in 1994 in central Iowa and treats about 150 people on a regular basis now. In central Iowa, the programs are offered both for children and adults and include a residential facility. In Hiawatha, the focus will be strictly on children on an outpatient basis at first. Agustin Ernie, 4, will be one of the first clients. He attends special preschool classes now. But when The Homesteads program opens next month, hell spend at least half the day at the Hiawatha facility. The center uses a treatment technique called Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). And Brad Bezilla, clinic director, said some of the goals for parents of the children ages … Continue reading →