We are currently recruiting women who are carriers of the FMR1 premutation for several ongoing studies. The overarching goal of this research is to better understand the symptoms experience by premutation carriers as they age, and to inform the development of clinical management strategies. A flyer is included below for further reference. Click here for… Read more »
We are pleased to announce funding of our newest research study here at the lab! This study will follow women who carry the FMR1 premutation and healthy control women longitudinally over a 3-year period. The objective is to determine the trajectory and predictors of age-related symptoms experienced by premutation carriers during midlife and early old… Read more »

Veronica is a Columbia, SC local, and has been at the University of South Carolina as either student or staff since 2016. She graduated from the South Carolina Honors College in 2020 with a B.S. in Experimental Psychology and English, and is currently working on her M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She is excited… Read more »

From the land of fields of corn, Jennifer has been in Indiana since 4th grade. She received her B.S. degree in Psychology from Purdue University on May 2022. Her interests align with the lab’s goal to develop better family-centered support services for families of children with developmental disabilities like fragile X syndrome and autism. She… Read more »
Dr. Laura Friedman recently received an F32 grant from the National Institution on Aging. Her project will examine cognitive aging profiles of mothers of children with autism and will also explore caregiving-associated risk factors that may be related to atypical cognitive aging (such as stress or poor sleep quality).

Check out this article highlighting the internship recent college graduate Ashley Kunkle completed in our lab. We are so excited to read about how her internship inspired her to pursue a career in medicine. Best of luck in your future endeavors, Ashley!
Interested in keeping up-to-date with research participation opportunities at the University of South Carolina? The UofSC Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Center of Excellence invites families to sign up for their listserv. For more information, you can scan the QR code in their flyer or click on the interest form link here.

Dr. Jessica Klusek has been awarded $149,000 from the National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She will use the two-year grant to examine aging language trajectories for women who are carriers of the FMR1 premutation.

Our department hosted a grand opening to celebrate our move into a beautiful new space. COMD‘s new home in the Close-Hipp building allows the entire department, including students, faculty, administration, and researchers to collaborate and work alongside one another in a centralized location. The move has provided our research lab with a brand new work… Read more »

Alyssa Campanelli’s poster presentation, Social Interaction Style and Language Ability in Males with Autism and Fragile X Syndrome, was awarded Second Place in the Psychology and Neuroscience Category at Discovery USC 2019! Alyssa is a Science for Undergraduate Research Fellowship awardee and her project focused on the categorization of autism-related social phenotypes within males with fragile X syndrome. Great… Read more »