Open minds

OpenMinds continues to support numerous research projects carried out at the ASKC and the Neurogenetics laboratory at AUBMC. These include studying effects of a number of drugs for the NCLs, a group of fatal childhood neurogenetic disorders, AND, projects detailing previously unknown findings of neuroradiological improvement, visual tracking differences, novel genes and impact of early intervention on outcome in autism. The fruits of this labor in 2018 include:

Completion of a PhD project and thesis by Sally El-Sitt on February 5, 2018 entitled: Exogenous Galactosylceramide as potential treatment for CLN3 disease.

Sally El-Sitt at work

DTI Autism whitematter

Six poster presentations presented in March, 2018 on AUB Biomedical Research Day, with Stephanie Hoyek et al., garnering best poster award at Biomedical Research Day 2018 for their work on Visual Tracking Abnormalities in Autism.

Another two posters will be presented at the 16th NCL International Conference at Royal Holloway College, London in September, 2018.

• White Matter Tract Development in Autistic Toddlers and Preschoolers by Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Correlation with Ongoing Therapies

• Next Generation Sequencing of autism genes in the Lebanese population and their functional evaluation
• Novel Paradigm for Eye Tracking and Vision Screening in Autism
• Efficacy of Applied Behavior Analysis Intervention in a Retrospective Pilot Study in Lebanon