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 »
Dr. Klusek, along with Dr. Jane Roberts and other stakeholders and advocates, gathered in the South Carolina state capitol to share their individual experiences with fragile X syndrome in honor of July 22, 2018 being proclaimed Fragile X Awareness Day. This governor’s proclamation of the inaugural South Carolina Fragile X Awareness Day was an important step in raising… Read more »
Sydney Burrell was awarded a Magellan Scholars Research Grant. The title of her project is: “Mother-Child Synchrony as a Predictor of Problem Behavior and Autism-Related Deficits in Individuals with Fragile X Syndrome.” In this project, she will investigate if mother-child interaction can predict social outcomes, problem behaviors, and autism symptoms at a one-year follow up…. Read more »
Veronica McLean, a junior at USC double majoring in Psychology and English in the South Carolina Honors College, has been recently awarded a Science Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) to support her engagement in mentored research with our team. Veronica’s project will focus on story grammar and narrative abilities associated with FMR1 gene mutations. Congratulations, Veronica!
Ella Ahrens received first place in Health Sciences at Discover USC! Her poster, Propositional Density as an Indicator of Premature Language Decline in Women with the FMR1 Premutation, represented the culmination of her Magellan Scholars Undergraduate Research Project. Way to go, Ella!