KU News Release

KU establishes autism research center

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has established a new bi-campus autism research center supported by a combination of public and private funding.

The Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training, or K-CART, will be a multidisciplinary center that promotes research and training on the causes, nature and management of autism spectrum disorders. It will be the 13th center of KU’s Life Span Institute.

KU and the KU Medical Center will initially jointly fund the center with seed money of $1 million for five years in part to support intramural pilot projects to attract younger researchers to autism research.

Since K-CART was launched as an exploratory effort in February 2007, the initiative has drawn more than 40 faculty members from across KU, KU Medical Center and other KU research groups — all with research interests and clinical practice in autism spectrum disorders in cognitive neuroscience; psychiatry; behavioral, clinical and developmental psychology; special education; occupational and speech therapy; and other fields. Affiliated K-CART researchers have 28 recent and current grants related to autism spectrum disorders with annual funding of $9.3 million.

Led by Debra Kamps, a KU senior researcher, and Matthew Reese, a researcher and child psychologist who directs KU’s autism clinics at the medical center, the initiative began to pick up funding momentum in September 2007 when it was selected as the project of the year by Kansas City Young Matrons, a philanthropic organization of more than 300 women.

K-CART will receive part of the proceeds from the organization’s annual charity ball, up to $90,000. In turn, Kamps and colleagues are producing a three-DVD set, Autism Connections, for the parents, siblings, peers and teens of young adults with autism spectrum disorders.

“Families throughout the region have come forward to support KU taking a more public leadership role in addressing this perplexing disorder,” said Kamps.

In February, the Life Span Institute received a $1 million gift from the estate of Wanda and Thomas Pyle of Elmdale that will be used as a source of long-term funding for the effort.

Addressing the problem of autism spectrum disorders will involve action on multiple fronts by scientists and practitioners, Kamps said.

One of K-CART’s immediate goals is to disseminate effective interventions to improve behavior, communication and social skills to practitioners, educators and parents throughout the state and region.

K-CART won a grant in March to develop the statewide training for individuals who will provide services for children with autism through the new Kansas autism Medicaid waiver program.

The project will train and retrain a cadre of Kansas service providers to new level of professionalism based on evidence-based practice developed at KU.

K-CART’s long-term approach is to support research that identifies the causes and neural mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorders, said John Colombo, interim director of the Life Span Institute and a neuroscientist who is exploring identifying autism spectrum disorders in infants.

K-CART will enable a collaboration of university and community partners to grow the number of research dollars received, which translates to new knowledge and better services.

According to Kamps, improved training will increase the number of highly qualified service providers and growing clinical services based at the university increases both research and training and improves the quality of life for children and youth with autism spectrum disorders and their families and communities.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.