IACC Subcommittee for Basic and Translational Research Planning Group for Question 3 (What Caused This to Happen and How Can It Be Prevented?) Conference Call - September 18, 2012

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Agenda
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Materials
Transcript

Topic	Topic Description
Date:	Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Time:	4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Agenda:	The planning group for Question 3 will discuss updates for the IACC Strategic Plan.
Place:	No in-person meeting; conference call only
Conference Call:	Dial: (888) 455-5419 Access code: 9404105
Materials:	Meeting materials
Contact Person:	Ms. Lina Perez Office of Autism Research Coordination National Institute of Mental Health, NIH 6001 Executive Boulevard, NSC, Room 6182A Rockville, Maryland 20852 Phone: (301) 443-6040 E-mail: IACCPublicInquiries@mail.nih.gov
Please Note:	The meeting will be made available to the public via conference call. Members of the public who participate using the conference call phone number will be able to listen to the meeting but will not be heard. If you experience any technical problems with the conference call, please-e mail IACCTechSupport@acclaroresearch.com or call the IACC Technical Support Help Line at 443-680-0098. Accommodations Statement: Individuals who participate by using this electronic service and who need special assistance such as captioning or other reasonable accommodations should submit a request to the Contact Person listed on this notice. Schedule subject to change.

No in-person meeting; conference call only. The materials for the meeting can be found here.

Time	Event
4:00 p.m.	Roll Call and Opening Remarks Lyn Redwood, R.N., M.S.N. Coalition for SafeMinds Chair, Basic and Translational Research Question 3 Planning Group Gemma Weiblinger – Designated Federal Official National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
4:15 p.m.	Discussion
5:00 p.m.	Adjournment

Roll Call and Opening Remarks

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Subcommittee for Basic and Translational Research Strategic Plan Question 3 Planning Group convened a conference call on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 from 12:26 p.m. to 1:09 p.m.

In accordance with Public Law 92-463, the meeting was open to the public. Ms. Lyn Redwood, R.N., M.S.N., Chair, presided.

Participants:

Lyn Redwood, R.N., M.S.N., Chair, Coalition for SafeMinds; Gemma Weiblinger, M.A., Designated Federal Official, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH); Elizabeth Baden, Ph.D., Office of Autism Research Coordination (OARC), (NIMH); Matthew Carey, Ph.D., Left Brain Right Brain; Cindy Lawler, Ph.D., National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (representing Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D.); Craig Newschaffer, Ph.D., Drexel University; Lina Perez, (OARC), (NIMH); Isaac Pessah, Ph.D., University of California-Davis; Matthew State, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University

Roll Call and Opening Remarks

Ms. Gemma Weiblinger welcomed participants to the call to update Question 3 (What caused this to happen and can it be prevented?) of the IACC Strategic Plan. Ms. Lyn Redwood called roll, and reviewed the process for updating the Strategic Plan. The Update documents would be presented and discussed at the upcoming workshop. After the workshop, the full IACC would review and finalize the updates, which would be submitted to Congress before the end of the year.

Ms. Redwood reviewed the template for the Update, which included specific tasks, such as identifying the key findings for discovery and their importance, as well as specifying what had been learned from the 2011 Summary of Advances and the 2010 Portfolio Analysis. This update would include newly-funded research that might address gap areas identified in the 2011 update, along with an assessment of community needs. She suggested that external experts provide a summary of the suggested topics, based on their areas of expertise. They were to include key findings since the last update. It was decided that Dr. Isaac Pessah would address environmental and toxicological issues; Dr. Matthew State would address genetics; and Dr. Craig Newschaffer would review epidemiologic studies.

Ms. Redwood recommended that the external experts coordinate their efforts to avoid overlap. Dr. Pessah said that because each of the external experts would be approaching the subject from a different perspective, some coordination would help guide them to a common point.

The next step would be for Dr. Cindy Lawler, Dr. Matthew Carey, and Ms. Redwood to review the drafts from the external experts, and to add remaining gap areas. They also would address community needs. Dr. Newschaffer suggested the external experts each write about 1 page with brief references, circulate the drafts for review. They could then meet the week of October 8 by phone to discuss the drafts, and determine how the pieces would be synthesized into one draft for the IACC.

Ms. Redwood asked that the external experts alert the group of any research they believed to be a gap area or research opportunities that were not reflected in the Strategic Plan. Dr. Baden asked the external experts to determine a time for their conference call, which could then be scheduled for the week of October 8, 2012. Dr. State said he would coordinate the effort to find some times that would work. Their single page write-ups would be circulated before the call.

Dr. Lawler commented that the number of studies was as important as the budget in terms of identifying gaps. Ms. Redwood said that for 2008, the number of projects might not be available, although funding amounts were. She said they could use the IACC Portfolio Analysis Web Tool to look at specific projects that were funded by NIH. However, this information would not be available for private funding. Dr. Baden said that they could identify the number of projects for 2009 and 2010 by objective using the 2009 and 2010 Portfolio Analysis. This information could be added to Ms. Redwood's document for 2009 and 2010, and information for 2008 also could be added.

Dr. Baden noted that experts working on the other questions would be attending the October workshop. Dr. Lawler asked whether the external experts would be able to see the materials that were being prepared for the other questions in advance of the October meeting. Dr. Baden said all of the information would be circulated to the external experts, and would be posted online for the public before the meeting.

Dr. Lawler asked the external experts whether they thought there were any areas relevant to this question that they would not be able to cover sufficiently. All of the experts responded that they believed they could cover the material. Ms. Redwood said that immunology was another gap area, which had been recently been identified.

Dr. State said that it was important to address this. Dr. Pessah said he was aware of advances in terms of immune dysfunction in children with autism and that he could address this subject.

Ms. Redwood suggested another call, and said that she would contact group members to set up a time.

Adjournment

The call was adjourned at 1:09 p.m.

Certification

I hereby certify that this meeting summary is accurate and complete.

/Susan Daniels/ November 16, 2012
Susan A. Daniels, Ph.D.
Executive Secretary, Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee

IACC Meeting Full Slide Set (PDF – 85 KB)
IACC Portfolio Analysis 2008-2010 Cumulative Funding for Strategic Plan Question 3 (PDF – 103 KB)

The Section 508 compliant version of the last document listed above will be posted shortly.

Meeting Transcript (PDF - 64 KB)

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