Dr. Craig Newschaffer Comments in DISCOVER Magazine’s Article on Autism

Dr. Craig Newschaffer, PhD, a professor and department chair at the Drexel School of Public Health, provided expert commentary on the interaction between genes and environmental impacts – such as pollutants, chemicals and other toxins – in an article about autism in the April 2007 edition of DISCOVER Magazine.  Click here to read the DISCOVER article.

In the article, entitled “Autism: It’s Not Just in the Head,” Dr. Newschaffer discusses the importance of identifying common symptoms within the wide variety of autism spectrum disorders, as well as ways to better observe genes and the environment together.

The article also point outs that several federally funded epidemiological studies are underway to pinpoint possible environmental triggers for autism, including an initiative by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Dr. Newschaffer serves as co-principal investigator of this CDC study, which is expected to review 2,700 children over the next five years.

Dr. Newschaffer joined the Drexel School of Public Health in 2006. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel School of Public Health. Dr. Newschaffer joined Drexel from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In addition to the CDC study, he is also engaged in other projects focusing on how particular genes might interact with environmental exposures to increase autism risk. Most recent, Dr. Newschaffer began a collaboration with Peking University to explore approaches for conducting epidemiological research on autism in China.