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Introduction to the Special Section Contribution of the UNC Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center (NDRC)
Author(s) -
Piven Joseph
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/s0736-5748(02)00029-1
Subject(s) - chapel , section (typography) , citation , library science , special section , psychology , computer science , history , art history , engineering , operating system , engineering physics
The University of North Carolina (UNC) Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center (NDRC) is home to one of the original 14 NICHD Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers. This Center originated with parallel streams of research into the biochemistry of mental retardation and applied research in early childhood development, illustrative of what was then considered state-of-the-art investigation into mental retardation and developmental disabilities. More recently, the Center has re-focused on the integration of a series of programs of multidisciplinary, collaborative research around the theme of gene–brain–behavior relationships in the pathogenesis and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. The current research discoveries of genes underlying many mental retardation syndromes as well as new, cutting edge methodologies, such as gene microarrays and functional MRI, dramatically facilitate this interactive, translational research emphasis, well beyond what was imagined possible at the start of the Center over 30 years ago. The contribution to the current Special Edition of the IJDN, from the UNC NDRC, highlights the work of three current (Drs. Barnes, Maynard and Pelphrey) and one recent (Dr. Cody) NIH NRSA post-doctoral fellows (and their research mentors) at our Center, that epitomizes much of the current research in the Center. These papers highlight two areas of concentration in our Center—developmental neurobiology and autism. The first paper by Barnes and Milgram highlights work on