Since its founding in 1998, the MIND Institute has achieved international recognition as a leader in research and innovative treatment approaches for neurodevelopmental disorders. MIND Institute faculty members have:
- Helped to identify the biological bases of neurodevelopmental disorders
- Discovered biomarkers for autism, including larger brains in some infants
- Identified genetic and environmental factors that increase risk, including the mother’s health
- Elucidated the critical role of the immune system in autism
- Developed and helped implement educational and behavioral interventions — such as the Early Start Denver Model — and innovative technologies
- Advanced treatments for fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited intellectual impairment
- Identified related but previously unrecognized disorders, including primary ovarian insufficiency and fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS)
- Surgeon General, state of California, February 2019
- Led some of the first and largest studies of their kinds, such as CHARGE, MARBLES, and the Autism Phenome Project
- Shown that California’s autism increase is not solely due to better diagnosis or diagnostic substitution
- Developed widely used assays to characterize and track disorders, and their responsiveness to new therapeutics
