In This Edition

 

 

Are you receiving TACA's regional newsletters with information on local TACA meetings and events? We can't send it to you if we don't know where you are! Please Join TACA (it's free) or update your membership to include your location. If you include your mailing address, you'll receive TACA's print newsletter, Talking Autism.

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) provides general information of interest to the autism community. The information comes from a variety of sources and TACA does not independently verify any of it. The views expressed herein are not necessarily TACA’s. TACA does not engage in lobbying or other political activities.

Return to
Newsletter
Navigation

TACA E-Newsletter

April 2010 #2

Here is your update on TACA (Talk About Curing Autism). If you are new to our site... WELCOME! This newsletter is produced two to four times each month.

We are an autism education and support group. We want to make this e-newsletter informative for you. As always, contact us your thoughts and/or questions so we can improve it.

We focus on parent information and support, parent mentoring, dietary intervention, the latest in medical research, special education law, reviews of the latest treatments, and many other topics relating to autism. Our main goal is to build our community so we can connect, share and support each other.

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) provides general information of interest to the autism community. The information comes from a variety of sources and TACA does not independently verify any of it. The views expressed herein are not necessarily TACA’s.

1. Find a TACA Meeting

Come to a TACA Meeting!

TACA holds monthly meetings in many locations throughout the United States that feature educational speakers on important topics and allow family members to connect with one another and stay on top of the latest information in the autism world. Each TACA group maintains a resource library of the latest autism books, CDs and DVDs that can be checked out by members at no charge.

Check out our group listings: each contains information on TACA meetings and special events as well as a contact form.

Are you wondering what happens at a TACA meeting? Watch our video.

2. Join Us for Coffee Talk!

Come and receive some extra support or to
chat all topics related to autism and meet
other TACA families at these informal,
monthly get-togethers.

  

3. Raising autism awareness one step at a time

By ARIANA CERNIUS
FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Walka for TACA (Talk About Curing Autism) fundraiser at Newport Harbor High takes place on Saturday. It was started last year by Ariana Cernius when she was a senior at Newport Harbor. Her youngest brother has autism.

Editor's note: While she attended Newport Harbor High, Ariana Cernius would do an autism awareness project each year, motivated by her frustration that too few of her peers even knew about a disorder with a prevalence rate that may be as high as 1 in 91 children. Her younger brother Andrew developed brain cancer at 16 months, survived, and was diagnosed with autism when he was 3.

The Cernius family is dedicated to helping Andrew reach his highest potential, and he has learned to read and write, multiply and divide, play piano and ride a bicycle. The family is involved in the advocacy organization Talk About Curing Autism.

Ariana Cernius, left, and her brother Andrew Cernius. Ariana, 18, started the Walka for TACA to raise awareness about autism. Andrew, 15, has autism. TACA stands for Talk About Curing Autism.

Ariana's high school projects included "Autism Movie Night" and "Cupcakes for a Cure." She also coordinated the "Walka for TACA" fundraiser held on the Newport Harbor track. April is Autism Awareness Month and the second annual Walka for TACA takes place on Saturday. Ariana, 18 and now in college, tells us in her own words about her relationship with Andrew, 15, and her passion for her cause.

We came to life in the same Petri dish, my brother Andrew and I. We were test tube babies, conceived from the same batch of our mother's eggs. I was born in 1991, but Andrew was frozen as an embryo and born three years later.

Our unusual beginning binds us inextricably, yet our lives and our futures couldn't be more different. Andrew is smart, handsome, and the happiest person I know. He's also a cancer survivor and severely autistic. Growing up with Andrew and watching his challenges has significantly influenced who I am and what I want to do with my life.

My earliest memory of Andrew is the day I learned he had brain cancer, when I was 4 years old and he was just past his 1st birthday. I felt deeply wounded watching Andrew suffer through four brain surgeries, lose his hair and eyelashes, and throw up after chemotherapy. I thought he must have done something terrible and that the cancer was his punishment.

I worried that I would get cancer too, if I misbehaved. When the cancer was gone, I thought our life would be "normal" again, but then came the autism.

Autism makes Andrew uninterested in people outside our family, unable to have a conversation, and unaware of danger. Andrew attracts disapproving glares when he invades other people's personal space at the mall, flaps his hands and makes odd noises in church, or impulsively grabs French fries from a stranger's plate in a restaurant.

To the world, my little brother Andrew may seem limited and abnormal, but to me, he is a hero, a teacher, and a great inspiration.

Andrew has helped me see that dark clouds do have silver linings. I marvel that he's able to keep an unwavering smile through all of his struggles, and that he lives his life with joy.

I can't be sad for Andrew because he is always so happy. He views the world with a simplicity that shows me life is not about getting straight A's, being voted best looking, or driving a Lexus.

Andrew loves the people around him unconditionally and with an open heart, setting an example for me every day. He does not judge, he's incapable of hate, and he doesn't care what others think of him. Andrew always gives his personal best and has achieved goals no one thought possible – he can read, multiply and divide, and operate every electronic gadget in our house.

Seeing how hard Andrew works for the smallest achievement drives me to challenge myself even when I don't feel like it. Most importantly, Andrew has taught me to approach people who are different from me with tolerance and empathy.

I've been called an old soul, I think because of my understanding that any obstacles I may face in my future pale in comparison to what Andrew will face in his. I am strong and resilient because of him.

My relationship with Andrew has also made me passionate about helping others like him. I have worked to raise autism awareness in my community, given piano lessons to autistic children, and interned for an autism rehabilitation agency.

I will always be a friend and advocate for the autism community out of gratitude for the lessons I have learned from my brother Andrew.

4. Daily Autism Updates for Families

All news related to autism: AgeofAutism.com

5. Autism Speaks to Fund $5.2 Million in Genetics Studies for Early Biomarker Diagnosis

Ageofautism.com

GenomeWeb.com reports on $5.2 million in Autism Speaks grant money allocation. Proteomics is defined as, "the study of genetics which refers to all the proteins expressed by a genome; proteomics involves the identification of proteins in the body and the determination of their role in physiological and pathophysiological functions." Genomics is "the study of all of the nucleotide sequences, including structural genes, regulatory sequences, and noncoding DNA segments, in the chromosomes of an organism." Bold markings are the ours, not the article's. Does this point to prenatal testing as the goal? How "early" is early diagnosis?

Autism Speaks Funds New Genomics Programs
April 09, 2010

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Autism advocacy organization Autism Speaks will fund genomics and proteomics studies through a set of new grants announced this week totaling $5.2 million.

Of these grants, nearly $900,000 will fund two three-year studies involving genomics and proteomics, including an effort to discover biomarkers that could be used to diagnose autism spectral disorder earlier, and research into a gene that could be used in development of a better animal model for studying autism-related genetics.

One Autism Speaks grant will give $449,000 to the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge for a project to seeking to identify a serum-based panel of biomarkers for minimally-invasive early diagnosis of ASD and for the potential for distinguishing various subtypes of the condition using proteomic platforms.

Cambridge researcher Sabine Bahn will serve as principal investigator on the grant. Her team has already identified a prototype panel using the Luminex xMAP platform that can distinguish Asperger’s subjects from matched controls in a small clinical cohort.

The team plans to develop this panel further through profiling analyses of additional cohorts that reflect the spectrum of the condition using age and gender-matched controls. The second phase of the project will test the prototype panel using larger cohorts to identify the most robust biomarker patterns for identifying ASD at the earliest possible clinical phase. The availability of these panels is expected to enable increased understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in ASD, earlier diagnosis of affected individuals, early intervention approaches, and identification of potentially novel treatment strategies.

A $450,000 grant to Yong-Hui Jiang of Duke University will fund research on the molecular pathogenesis of ASD. The project will focus on mutations in the SHANK3 gene that have been found in a small but significant number of individuals with ASD.

Jiang’s team will dissect the SHANK3 protein network, assess its synaptic structure and function, and evaluate behavioral changes in an ASD animal model the team already developed.

Results from this study may be used to understand the role of SHANK3 in synaptic function or to produce a valid mouse model to dissect the pathogenesis of ASD using cutting-edge neurobiological and neuroimaging techniques in the future.