BGU and Soroka University Medical Center researchers have established a new autism database, one of most comprehensive of its kind, to benefit children with autism and their families, physicians, and researchers studying the disorder around the globe.

Approximately 150 children are diagnosed with autism at Soroka every year. By integrating University research and technology into hospital diagnostic and follow–up visits, project leaders Dr. Gal Meiri of Soroka and Drs. Ilan Dinstein and Idan Menashe of BGU were able to collect a wide variety of data without requiring children to make additional lab visits.

“Most of the necessary information is gathered during the clinical diagnosis and therefore the families do not have to return for additional examinations,” explains Dr. Dinstein, head of the Neuroimaging Lab and a researcher in BGU’s Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience.

Cutting–edge equipment, some created with the help of BGU’s Department of Biochemical Engineering, enables researchers to record a wide array of behaviors, including eye movement, body movement, voice recordings, and even brain activity during sleep. Other data used includes detailed family history, genetic samples and various neurological measures.

“Scientists around the world have come to realize that autism is not a single disorder, but rather a family of distinct disorders that are likely generated by different causes,” says Dr. Menashe, a member of BGU’s Center for Evolutionary Genomics and Medicine.

“An important goal of the database initiative is to facilitate identification of different autism subtypes.”

The database is housed in the Negev Autism Center — an ongoing collaboration between BGU and Soroka dedicated to translational autism research. The center aims to translate scientific discoveries into treatments and tools to improve quality of life for children with autism.

“The availability of a wide variety of data from a relatively large sample of young children with autism will allow scientists to ‘connect the dots’ from potential causes,” explains Dr. Menashe.

“Such an understanding of specific types of autism is essential for translating the science into new, targeted clinical treatments.”