Garic, Dea PHD
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
INCLUDE Grants
The Role of CSF Dynamics in Infant Brain and Behavioral Development in Down Syndrome and Related Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathophysiology has been associated with impaired clearance of neuroinflammatory proteins, (e.g., amyloid-beta) and implicated in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, but the role of CSF dynamics in neurodevelopmental disorders remains unknown. This Career Development Award aims to address this gap by elucidating and contrasting trajectories of CSF characteristics in Down Syndrome (DS) and related disorders (autism spectrum disorder and Fragile X syndrome) across the first two years of life, to determine the relationships between CSF physiology and later neural and clinical features. Given that 50% of children with DS will go on to develop early-onset Alzheimer’s, CSF physiology can serve as a mechanistic pathway to aberrant brain and behavioral development and has the potential to guide the design of targeted treatment approaches for early intervention.