Rebecca Schmidt: Leveraging the ECHO Population to Examine Trends in Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Conditions

ECHO Discovery Summary

On April 20, Rebecca Schmidt, PhD of the University of California Davis School of Medicine presented on leveraging ECHO’s large and diverse population of children to evaluate nationwide trends in autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

Previously, it has been difficult for researchers to study the epidemiology—the distribution and determinants—of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) because standards and practices for screening and diagnosis are variable. The ECHO-wide protocol allows researchers to track nationwide trends in ASD diagnosis and autism-related traits, collected through caregiver-reported scores on the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). The use of standardized, harmonized measures like the SRS makes it easier for ECHO researchers to track ASD trends across time and geography without the complications presented by differences in awareness and access to care.

ECHO also includes several cohorts recruiting children with autism diagnoses and those who are at higher risk for ASD. These cohorts help researcher better evaluate the risk factors and neurodevelopmental trajectories associated with ASD.

Speaker:

Rebecca J. Schmidt, PhD

University of California Davis School of Medicine

Speaker Bio:

Rebecca J. Schmidt is a tenured associate professor and molecular epidemiologist in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the MIND Institute at the University of California Davis School of Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, completed the postdoctoral Autism Research Training Program at the UC Davis MIND Institute, and was a Building Interdisciplinary Research Career in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) scholar. Dr. Schmidt aims to advance understanding of how early life environmental exposures interact with genetic susceptibility, molecular mechanisms, and developmental programming to influence neurodevelopmental outcomes of children. Her pioneering work includes finding some of the first evidence in the autism field for a potentially protective effect of folic acid-rich prenatal vitamins, evidence for gene x environment interactions, and protective interactions between folate and environmental contaminants. She co-developed the Early Life Environmental Exposure Assessment Tool (ELEAT). In addition to leading the MARBLES high-risk autism sibling pregnancy cohort study and biorepository, Dr. Schmidt leads a wildfire pregnancy cohort study, is site-lead for follow-up of children at older ages in the national ECHO cohort study, and co-leads several mechanistic autism studies, including epidemiologic examinations of mitochondrial, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic variations in relation to neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Date: Wednesday, April 20th, 1 to 2pm ET