Welcome to Intensity2.
What kind of research in autism?
going to start by growing up a mutant clone of mice that have a particular mutation that causes variation in post synaptic hippocampal plasticity which is also observable by it's behavioral phenotypes (which are similar to autistic pehontypes [aka-displays, expressions] in humans and other model organisms)
basically... im gonna be testing the cognitive abilities of autisitc mice... and then slicing their brains open to see what's going on there.... it's the molecular gap between phsyiology and behavior.
the hippocampus is involved in a lot of apsects that are linked to autism and NVLDs.... particularly spatial learning and episodic memory
the particular mutation i will be looking at will hopefully help to define the deveopmental timeline for identifying the best "intervention" time-window for treating kids on the spectrum. that is my hope, at anyrate.