Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship 2016- Clinical Autism Research
Over the summer of 2016, I participated in the SURF program, working under Craig Erickson, MD; Logan Wink, MD; and Ernie Pedapati, MD, through the Kelly O'Leary Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders. My main project over the summer was to work with several clinical research coordinators (CRCs) on a study which aims to identify specific proteins in the blood that could aid in clinical diagnostics of autism spectrum disorders as well as other developmental disorders, This is critical because currently the diagnostic process includes implicit subjectivity, as well as several months to years in testing. After all this testing, many parents and caregivers still struggle with an indefinite, spectrum based diagnosis. Determining what the protein markers differentiate ASD allows physicians and therapists to more accurately diagnose patients and start them on treatments earlier in life, during the critical stages of development and socialization of childhood.
As part of this fellowship, I had the chance to interact with patients and their families on a daily basis. This study works with children who range in age from 18 months to 4 years. I was bale to interact with these children and their parents, siblings, This involved a full day of visits, starting with taking basic vitals and demographic information, and moving as quickly as possible to the blood draw, as the kids had to be fasting until we did so. From there, I was in charge of processing the blood sample, which needed to be processed in a centrifuge, labelled, recorded, and packed into separate shipping boxes within a few minutes so I could run them to a freezer on the other side of the hospital within an hour. I then got to help them family get to where they needed to go in the hospital to meet with the other clinicians they were seeing as part of their appointment that day. One of my most interesting memories as part of this project was working with a family with three children with autism, two year old triplets with severe social anxiety. This was a very challenging day, but helped me develop skills in conflict management, and getting tasks done in a timely manner when there is chaos going on. Because this project is still recruiting patients and processing the samples, I cannot publish any working results here, but will as soon as they become available.
I also worked on a study called SPARK. SPARK is the largest autism study in the nation, attempting to recruit 50,000 people with autism and their family members to provide DNA samples for analysis. For this, I worked with a coordinator to recruit full biological trios (mom, dad, and child), as well as siblings to provide samples to be sent to the organization for analysis. I set up a table in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics clinic to recruit potential participants and answer questions about the study. This helped me with my presentation and networking skills.
Towards the end of the summer, I was able to work on a poster for presentation with other students in the lab. For this poster, we examined the ability of children with both ASD and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) to track both social and geometric scenes, using complex data analysis to determine their attention and ability to track different phenomena, and how this correlates to disease severity and social measures. This capstone poster was then presented at the Poster Symposium in the UC College of Medicine. This poster is below:
As part of this fellowship, I had the chance to interact with patients and their families on a daily basis. This study works with children who range in age from 18 months to 4 years. I was bale to interact with these children and their parents, siblings, This involved a full day of visits, starting with taking basic vitals and demographic information, and moving as quickly as possible to the blood draw, as the kids had to be fasting until we did so. From there, I was in charge of processing the blood sample, which needed to be processed in a centrifuge, labelled, recorded, and packed into separate shipping boxes within a few minutes so I could run them to a freezer on the other side of the hospital within an hour. I then got to help them family get to where they needed to go in the hospital to meet with the other clinicians they were seeing as part of their appointment that day. One of my most interesting memories as part of this project was working with a family with three children with autism, two year old triplets with severe social anxiety. This was a very challenging day, but helped me develop skills in conflict management, and getting tasks done in a timely manner when there is chaos going on. Because this project is still recruiting patients and processing the samples, I cannot publish any working results here, but will as soon as they become available.
I also worked on a study called SPARK. SPARK is the largest autism study in the nation, attempting to recruit 50,000 people with autism and their family members to provide DNA samples for analysis. For this, I worked with a coordinator to recruit full biological trios (mom, dad, and child), as well as siblings to provide samples to be sent to the organization for analysis. I set up a table in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics clinic to recruit potential participants and answer questions about the study. This helped me with my presentation and networking skills.
Towards the end of the summer, I was able to work on a poster for presentation with other students in the lab. For this poster, we examined the ability of children with both ASD and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) to track both social and geometric scenes, using complex data analysis to determine their attention and ability to track different phenomena, and how this correlates to disease severity and social measures. This capstone poster was then presented at the Poster Symposium in the UC College of Medicine. This poster is below:
fxs_research_poster_2016.pdf |