MARI Research
Sometimes, research is not about discovering a cure - it’s about improving lives today. The Marino Autism Research Institute (MARI) is investing in research making a real difference in the lives of children and adults with autism. In September 2005, due to the generosity of the Jim and Jan Moran, the Dan Marino Foundation established MARI. A "virtual institute," MARI is comprised of the University of Miami, Vanderbilt University, Nova Southeastern University, and University of Southern California. The Foundation has seen its initial investment of $1.2 million leveraged into over $20 million in funding for the universities involved. In the spring of 2008, MARI hosted a scientific symposium, “Environment and Autism Etiology,” at Vanderbilt University. The goal of the symposium was to bring together investigators whose cutting-edge research and research methods hold promise for identifying environmental factors that may be interacting with genetic factors to cause autism.
"Most people would be surprised to learn that only a tiny fraction of funds invested in research in this country is devoted to enriching the quality of life for millions of people with autism," said MARI director, Pat Levitt, PhD., one of our nation’s leading neuroscientists and director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at USC. "MARI is all about doing science that matters."
Dr. Levitt’s team is using MARI funds to study why children with autism are prone to gastrointestinal problems that severely interrupt their lives and to lay groundwork for prevention and treatment protocols. MARI funds also support projects where neuroscientists, engineers and computer scientists explore futuristic technologies in robotics and virtual reality to help people with autism better interact socially. "Challenges in communication and social skills deficits are hallmarks of autism. This initiative is exciting because it leverages the best ideas from several scientific disciplines - that’s what it’s going to take to do science that matters in the 21st Century,” said Dr. Levitt.
http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/kennedy/marisymposium/
