Ed Riley, Principal Investigator/Program Director
A Cross-Cultural Assessment of FASAD Administrative Core
Pilot Project Core - CIFASD
Neurobehavioral Core for CIFASD
A Cross-Cultural Assessment of FASAD Administrative Core
The purpose of this application is to develop a Consortium for the "Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders" (CIFASD). The CIFASD will coordinate basic, behavioral, and clinical investigators in a multidisciplinary research project to better inform approaches aimed at developing effective intervention and treatment approaches for FASD. It will involve the input and contributions from basic researchers, behavioral scientists, and clinical investigators with the willingness to utilize novel and cutting edge techniques, not to simply replicate previous or ongoing work, but rather to move the field forward in a rigorous fashion. The first step is to definitively outline a diagnostic schema so that the full range of effects from prenatal exposure to large or moderate amounts of alcohol can be determined. While an abundance of evidence exists on the outcomes following prenatal alcohol exposure, one of the hindrances to developing a full set of criteria for diagnosing FASD has been the lack of adequate numbers of subjects at any single research site. This consortium will integrate researchers from a number of sites, including several international locations, to share common protocols, so that a large number of individuals can be assessed using similar procedures. These sites will interface with cores providing expertise in dysmorphology, behavioral assessment, and brain imaging. We will integrate the data collected at the various sites in the various domains (dysmorphology, behavior, brain) to develop a comprehensive assessment battery. At the same time, we will develop state of the art methodology to better define the diagnosis and the full range of effects resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure. This consortium will also include basic science components, whose long-range goals are aimed at developing effective interventions. The basic science components will inform the clinical components and vice versa. All projects and cores will interface with the Administrative Core and the Informatics Core to provide for the flow of information between the various PIs involved in this consortium. The purpose of this consortium is to provide the answers to much needed questions as it relates to the full spectrum of consequences resulting from prenatal alcohol.
Pilot Project Core - CIFASD
The Pilot Project Core provides one mechanism by which this consortium acts as a dynamic entity. It provides a flexible means for developing and exploring new research activities and directions for the Consortium and a mechanism by which new sites can be added or projects can evolve into independently funded research projects. During the 5 years of this Consortium we believe that we can fund approximately 14 pilot projects. We will start with 4 pilot projects in the 01-year, each running for two years. New projects will start as these end, some will be funded for a single year and others for two years. Of course other projects might be phased in as a funded pilot project spins off early into a regular research projects, or the progress on a pilot project is such that it is terminated early. The Consortium Coordinator will manage the Pilot Project Core, although again the Steering Committee will be intimately involved in this process. Following the initial round of pilot projects, additional projects will be solicited from Consortium members, affiliated investigators, other scientists interested in FASD, and investigators from others areas who might be interested in becoming part of the consortium. Announcements of the availability of these projects will be made through the Fetal Alcohol Study Group of the RSA, and other professional outlets. Each application for a pilot project will be screened by at least two members of the Scientific Advisory Board for scientific merit, innovation, and relationship to other projects in the Consortium. Applications that pass this first screen will be sent to the Steering Committee, which will assign primary and secondary reviewers of each proposal. These proposals will be discussed at one of the two annual meetings of the group. Pilot projects for the initial term were chosen with new ideas in mind. There was an emphasis on adding new sites that might contribute to the overall functioning of the Consortium over the long-term. These sites would have unique resources available to them, or unique attributes about the population under study. Thus, projects were chosen to be conducted in Buffalo, NY; the Ukraine; and Rome, Italy. The other consideration was that the pilot projects should utilize new and novel methods to assist in the diagnosis or treatment of FASD. In this regard, a project was chosen with a potential of diagnosing FASD early in life, based upon ultrasound imaging of the corpus callosum.
Neurobehavioral Core for CIFASD
The purpose of the Neurobehavioral Core is to provide for the assessment of the behavioral manifestations of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in order to provide a valid profile or profiles that would be useful in detecting prenatal alcohol effects. Since previous research suggests that there is a wide range of neurobehavioral outcomes, the core must be sensitive to the impact of prenatal exposure on cognitive, emotional and social functioning as it is manifest throughout infancy, childhood, into adulthood. The responsibilities of the Core will include: 1) Specification of an appropriate and flexible test battery that can be used by the Collaborative project sites to assess alcohol exposed individuals from birth into adulthood. The purpose of this aim is to be able to suggest a battery of tests capable of detecting prenatal alcohol exposure even in nondysmporphic individuals. 2) Support the various research sites with test and test materials. 3) To assist in the identification of the appropriate control factors that should be collected at all sites and to assist in determining what measures should be used in the collection of this information. 4) Respond to issues of training in the administration of these measures and to provide quality control over the assessments. 5) Establish and maintaining an interactive database of test outcomes and to interact fully with the Informatics Core to make these data available. 6) To interact with the Dysmorphology, Brain Imaging, 3D Facial Imaging, and Informatics Cores to determine the relationships between the various measures.