Autism Associated Enterocolitis: From bedside to lab bench and back.

This presentation will describe the process by which "new" disorders are initially recognized and then scientifically validated in the laboratory. Collaboration between clinician and bench scientist is critical.The process begins with the clinical recognition of specific symptoms in a defined population, investigation of those symptoms by the clinician to find their clinical organ(s) of origin and involvement, and then defining the disease condition using tools readily available to the clinician. Presentation of these findings by the clinician to the bench scientist then allows laboratory definition of the disease process in terms of mechanisms and pathways using tools not available to the clinician. Data obtained from such laboratory evaluations are then analyzed by the clinician to search for additional clinical correlates and mechanisms that ultimately lead to effective treatments and, hopefully, a cure. The back and forth flow of information over numerous cycles further refines and validates the data.
Specifically, this age old and time tested collaborative process has been at the heart of the evolving understanding of autism associated inflammatory bowel disease. Beginning with the clinical symptomatic presentation of the disease, the attendees will be shown how the close collaboration of a pediatric gastroenterologist and molecular biologist has succeeded in definitively defining this new disease and what new information continues to emerge from this collaboration.