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  University of California, Davis
  1333 Surge III
  Davis, California, 95616
  530.754.8157 - phone
  530.752.3761 - fax
  rlmorrison@ucdavis.edu


February 8, 2008 - Read our latest research paper about the immune system and autism: Stereotypies and hyperactivity in rhesus monkeys exposed to IgG from mothers of children with autism.

January 31, 2008 - From the Los Angeles Times - UC Davis Study shows vaccine-autism link unlikely. Infants are shown to rapidly metabolize the type of mercury used in the preservative thimerosal, still widely used in vaccines around the world.


VIEW the latest article on PCBs from the Davis Center for Children's Environmental Health published in NeuroToxicology (Summer 2007).


READ the latest article on autism among children in California's Central Valley (published July 2007)!
LEARN about pesticides and neurodevelopment (published May 2007, Environmental Health Perspectives).


Mission

The Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention is a multi-disciplinary collaborative research organization established to examine how toxic chemicals may influence the development of autism in children. The Center's goal is to contribute knowledge about autism that will lead to new strategies for the prevention and treatment of this mysterious condition.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that typically affects a person's ability to communicate, form relationships with others, and respond appropriately to their environment. Autistic children are limited in their social interactions, often locking into repetitive behaviors and rigid patterns of thinking.

Parents and health professionals have raised concerns about how environmental factors such as pesticides, a variety of chemicals, or even some ingredients included in vaccines may effect the development of the disorder. We are the first center to examine the roles of a wide range of toxic chemicals, genetic predisposition, and the interplay between these two in altering brain development during early life and leading to abnormal social behavior in children.

To learn more about the NIEHS/EPA Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research program, please click on the following links: U.S. EPA Children's Centers website (http://www.epa.gov/cehc) and NIEHS Children's Center website: (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/translat/children/children.htm).


Center Directors

Isaac Pessah, Ph.D., Director - Center for Children's Environmental Health
Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., Deputy Director - Center for Children's Environmental Health
David Amaral, Ph.D., Research Director - UC Davis MIND Institute


This center is funded by U.S. EPA Grants #R829388 and #R833292 and NIEHS Grant #2P01ES011269.




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