12-10-2004, 04:18 PM
From an article on Surromed-
"A private company called Surromed are working on a test for all newborns to detect autism. They believe a new technology that can test tiny biological samples with unprecedented speed will, in the short run, diagnose autism at birth and eventually find a way to cure or prevent it. A few years ago, the institute funded a pilot study that analyzed blood spots that are routinely taken from newborns in California and stored. Researchers compared the blood of children who eventually developed autism and mental retardation to kids with no diseases. They found that eight varieties of peptides were elevated in the blood of kids with autism and mental retardation, but not in the blood of other children. That suggested that autism could be diagnosed at birth. SurroMed has spent tens of millions of dollars on technology that uses very small quantities of blood or urine, which is key when working with small children. The company had also developed a platform of technologies that can analyze and compare thousands of substances quickly.SurroMed has optimized mass spectromoty to detect a wide range of characteristics in proteins with a very tiny sample of blood -- just a few microliters -- and then compare the thousands of samples to find differences specific to autism. They initiated a large-scale study to determine a biomarker for autism.
http://www.surromed .com/
11/04/2002 "Our goal is to develop a diagnostic test to accurately identify those newborns who are likely to develop autism. Identification of susceptible children is the first step to prevention of full-blown autism, and if we can prevent even 10 percent of the new cases of autism, that will be a major accomplishment." SurroMed, Inc. Announces Agreement with UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute to Search for Biomarkers for Autism.
"Identification of susceptible children is considered a fundamental first step toward prevention of autism."
SurroMed, Inc.
August J. Moretti
CFO and General Counsel
(650) 230-1564
email: amoretti@surromed .com
This test, when completed, will mean that every parent will be asked to have their newborn baby tested for autism, but more frightening is the fact that a similar test could be used for pre-natal screening, through amniocentesis, which may also be able to show the relevant peptide differences. This could put the above phrase of prevention of autism into a new light, ie, preventing our existence at all.
"A private company called Surromed are working on a test for all newborns to detect autism. They believe a new technology that can test tiny biological samples with unprecedented speed will, in the short run, diagnose autism at birth and eventually find a way to cure or prevent it. A few years ago, the institute funded a pilot study that analyzed blood spots that are routinely taken from newborns in California and stored. Researchers compared the blood of children who eventually developed autism and mental retardation to kids with no diseases. They found that eight varieties of peptides were elevated in the blood of kids with autism and mental retardation, but not in the blood of other children. That suggested that autism could be diagnosed at birth. SurroMed has spent tens of millions of dollars on technology that uses very small quantities of blood or urine, which is key when working with small children. The company had also developed a platform of technologies that can analyze and compare thousands of substances quickly.SurroMed has optimized mass spectromoty to detect a wide range of characteristics in proteins with a very tiny sample of blood -- just a few microliters -- and then compare the thousands of samples to find differences specific to autism. They initiated a large-scale study to determine a biomarker for autism.
http://www.surromed .com/
11/04/2002 "Our goal is to develop a diagnostic test to accurately identify those newborns who are likely to develop autism. Identification of susceptible children is the first step to prevention of full-blown autism, and if we can prevent even 10 percent of the new cases of autism, that will be a major accomplishment." SurroMed, Inc. Announces Agreement with UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute to Search for Biomarkers for Autism.
"Identification of susceptible children is considered a fundamental first step toward prevention of autism."
SurroMed, Inc.
August J. Moretti
CFO and General Counsel
(650) 230-1564
email: amoretti@surromed .com
This test, when completed, will mean that every parent will be asked to have their newborn baby tested for autism, but more frightening is the fact that a similar test could be used for pre-natal screening, through amniocentesis, which may also be able to show the relevant peptide differences. This could put the above phrase of prevention of autism into a new light, ie, preventing our existence at all.
did it sink 
or did it swim?