IMFAR Conference 2011

IMFAR, the International Meeting for Autism Research, is held every year. It is presented by INSAR, the International Society for Autism Research. IMFAR is the largest autism conference held, with hundreds of presentations of new research results.

IMFAR 2011 will be held in San Diego, California, May 12-14, at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

The program is not out yet, as they are still working on culling the over 1,000 abstracts submitted:

IMFAR 2011 Programming is Underway
Over 1,000 abstracts were submitted this year for IMFAR 2011. The Program Committee is currently reviewing abstracts and panel submissions. Abstract acceptance notifications are scheduled to be sent via e-mail by March 4

Keynote speakers have been announced:

Eric Courchesne, Ph.D

Eric Courchesne is Professor of Neurosciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Director of the NIH-funded UCSD Autism Center of Excellence. He is an internationally recognized expert on brain structural and functional abnormalities associated with autism. His Autism Center of Excellence aims to identify biobehavior markers of autism that will allow for earlier diagnosis and treatment by integrating behavioral, developmental, genetic, neuroanatomic and neurofunctional findings. Current ACE Center research includes MRI studies have identified structures that are abnormal at infancy in autism and elucidated patterns of abnormal growth from infancy through adulthood. Current functional brain imaging techniques seek to establish links between autistic symptoms in infants and toddlers and the brain sites responsible for them. Studies of brain tissue have discovered novel gene expression profiles and cellular defects in the frontal cortex at the youngest ages in autism and have additionally characterized how these abnormalities change with age from early childhood and to adulthood. Dr. Courchesne’s studies have resulted in over 180 publications with an overall very high impact factor as determined by the ISI Web of Knowledge. His research has been published in Science, JAMA, Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine and is supported through grants from NIMH, NINDS, NICHD, the Simons Foundation and Autism Speaks.

Ricardo Dolmetsch Ph.D.

Dr. Ricardo Dolmetsch is a faculty member in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University where he directs a laboratory that studies the underlying cellular and molecular basis of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). He is a graduate of Brown University, received his graduate degree from Stanford and did his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. His group has pioneered the use of adult stem cells to study the development of the brain and the mechanisms that lead to neurodevelopmental disease. He has received numerous awards for his work including the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award in 2007 and the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award in 2008. He is the author of more than 30 scholarly publications and is the parent of a child with ASD.

Professor Annette Dionne Karmiloff-Smith

Annette Karmiloff-Smith was until 2003 Head of the Neurocognitive Development Unit at the Institute of Child Health in London where she ran a research team studying typical/atypical development and genotype/phenotype relations. She now occupies a Professorial Research Fellowship at the Birkbeck Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, University of London. She has a “Doctorat en Psychologie Génétique et Expérimentale” from the University of Geneva, where she studied with the famous Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget. She is the author of 7 books and of over 200 chapters and articles in scientific journals, as well as a series of booklets for parents on different aspects of foetal, infant and child development. Her research on neurodevelopmental syndromes focuses on identifying basic-level deficits in early infancy and their cascading effects over developmental time on the resulting cognitive phenotype.

All are excellent, but one stands out in my mind, just because I’ve read a lot of his work–
Eric Courchesne is one of the most published and most cited researchers in autism. He’s been working on brain structure (and other topics) for 20 years (earliest publication I see is from 1978). For publication geeks out there, his H-index is at least 59 (based on a quick search of his papers). For the 99.99% of people (or more) who have never heard of the H-index, I’ll just say, his publication record is damned impressive.

IMFAR is not cheap, at $475 for “early bird membership” for non-members. There is no reason to attend as a non-member. The price for a membership in INSAR is $100, and the conference fee for a member is $100 less than the non-member price.

IMFAR is a busy, scientific conference. Most talks are 15 minutes, including questions. This doesn’t leave much time for the speaker to give background information. Poster sessions will be large–many, many posters being shown at the same time. But just take a look at past conference programs. The amount of work presented is amazing.

I am waiting eagerly for the program to be announced. There is also a flurry of press releases during the conferences as the embargoes are lifted on research projects presented there. Yes, I get excited by new research and IMFAR is pretty much the most concentrated announcement of new research in the autism world each year.