About NDRC

The mission of the UNC NDRC is to support and promote multidisciplinary research and research training on the pathogenesis and treatment/prevention of neurodevelopmental disorders. Major advances towards accomplishing this mission will come from an iterative process; whereby behavioral observations will critically inform basic biological studies and the results of these biological studies will in turn lead to more focused and refined behavioral studies characterizing specific genotype-phenotype relationships.

For example, observations about phenotypic characteristics and inheritance patterns, coupled with the advances in molecular genetics, ultimately led to finding the major gene, FMR1, underlying fragile X mental retardation. Knowledge of the FMR1 gene is now enabling us to refine phenotypic profiles and elucidate specific genotype-phenotype relationships, including relationships between the FMR1 gene and both brain and behavioral characteristics. Characterizing these more specific behavioral profiles, together with continued advances in molecular genetics, will very likely lead us to the discovery of genes which interact with FMR1 and that are responsible for features now known to be commonly associated with fragile X syndrome such as autistic behavior.

These findings may then sharpen our notions of underlying brain mechanisms and genes which may cause autism in some individuals with fragile X syndrome. These integrated, back and forth efforts to clarify the molecular and brain mechanisms underlying the range of cognitive and behavioral characteristics in disorders, such as fragile X and autism, will eventually lead to rational treatments for these conditions based on knowledge of their underlying etiologies and pathophysiologies. However these integrated efforts are critically dependent on multidisciplinary collaborative research linking findings from studies of genes, brain and behavior.

A central focus of the UNC NDRC is the promotion of an integrated program of collaborative, multidisciplinary, bio-behavioral research on neurodevelopmental syndromes. While it is often the case that basic biological researchers have difficulty speaking the same language as basic behavioral researchers (and vice-versa), both groups often find common scientific ground with those researchers conducting research on clinical conditions. These interactions between basic (biological and behavioral) researchers and clinical researchers often sharpen the focus of basic research on areas of greatest clinical relevance. Thus, placing bio-behavioral research on clinical syndromes into a prominent and central role at the UNC NDRC, increases meaningful, scientific interactions among the range of scientific disciplines in the Center.

Over 35 NIH grants on studies of human neurodevelopmental syndromes (e.g., autism, fragile X syndrome, neurofi bromatosis 1, Turner Syndrome, schizophrenia) and animal models of those syndromes (e.g., autism, fragile X syndrome, L1 syndrome, mucopolysacharidosis, velo-cardio-facial syndrome, Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome and Krabbes Disease) were funded to NDRC investigators as of FY 2002. The presence of clinical, bio-behavioral and translational researchers at the center of the NDRC promotes center-wide interactions around common topics both intellectually—through seminars, symposia and training experiences; as well as through specific research collaborations, forming the basis for an integrated, multi-disciplinary research environment for the study of neurodevelopmental disorders. The recent funding of two NIH Center grants on autism and fragile X syndrome are examples of this integrated approach.