Eric Courchesne, PhD

Professor

Email: ecourchesne@ucsd.edu

Dr. Courchesne’s research is focused on the neurobiology of autism. His efforts have produced new information about the structural, functional, and genetic bases of this disorder. His work has been recognized through publication in such journals as Science and the Journal of Neuroscience. He is also the source of new insights on the functional role of the cerebellum.

Infantile autism stands as one of the most common neurobiological disorders of infancy and early childhood, occurring in 1 out of 1,000 individuals. The Courchesne laboratory has played a significant role in understanding the biological bases of autism. This includes identifying the sites of neuroanatomical abnormality, obtaining evidence regarding the timing of biological onset, identifying neural substrates correlated with specific functional deficits, and obtaining evidence of candidate genetic loci.

The Courchesne laboratory has a reputation for using state-of-the-art procedures and adhering to exacting standards in patient diagnosis and selection procedures. Characterizations of autism anatomy involve the use of highly sophisticated structural and functional MRI technology to detect important anatomical and functional effects. In the first controlled prospective study of anatomic development in autism, the laboratory used a research design that provided key insights into two problems not previously addressed in any published study: identification of the neural abnormalities that are present at the earliest age (2-3 years) and identification of the neural abnormalities that distinguish autism from non-autism pervasive development disorders. During the course of this work, Dr. Courchesne found that the size of the cerebellar vermis was inversely correlated with frontal lobe grey matter volume, the characteristic finding being vermal hypoplasia accompanied by some degree of frontal hyperplasia. In recent studies, Dr. Courchesne has demonstrated that autistic children have difficulty processing auditory stimuli and difficulty orienting attention in space. These observations suggest that multiple modalities are abnormal in autism, likely as a result of anatomic lesions in multiple brain regions.

In August 2007, Dr. Courchesne was awarded a new P50 Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) grant funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, in cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The Department proudly welcomes this latest addition to the translational research enterprise at the UCSD School of Medicine. As Principal Investigator, Dr. Courchesne will be overseeing a new and exciting period of growth in the interdisciplinary collaborations and research agenda of his UCSD Center for Autism Research. In accord with the ACE mandate, the Center will bring together and provide core resources to biomedical, behavioral, and clinical science investigators in an effort to find the causes of and to develop new preventive interventions and improved treatments for autism. Research activities at the UCSD ACE will be directed toward achievement of three primary aims: characterization of the early developmental clinical phenotype of autism from 12 to 36 months of age, identification of early developmental biomarkers of autism from age 12 months, and identification of candidate overgrowth susceptibility genes in autism.

In implementation of the 3 scientific cores and 4 projects that comprise the UCSD ACE agenda, Dr. Courchesne’s team includes 24 senior and junior faculty at UCSD, the Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Rady Children’s Hospital and Health Center, and SUNY Upstate Medical University. Karen Pierce, PhD, will lead the Clinical Phenotype: Recruitment and Assessment Core, in consultation with Richard H. Haas, MD; Laura Schreibman, PhD, and Aubyn Stahmer, PhD will co-lead the Clinical Phenotype: Treatment Response Core; and Nicholas Schork, PhD, will lead the Integrated Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Analysis Core. These core resources will support four Projects: (1) MRI Studies of Early Brain Development in Autism; (2) Imaging the Autistic Brain before It Knows It Has Autism: Functional MRI Response to Social, Emotion, and Language Stimuli in 1- and 2-Year-Olds At-Risk for Autism; (3) Autism Biomarkers and Risk Genes: Comparative Gene Expression in Brain and Blood; and (4) Targeting Genetic Pathways for Brain Overgrowth in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Project Primary Investigators, in addition to Drs. Courchesne and Pierce, are Tony Wynshaw-Boris, MD, PhD, and Stephen J. Glatt, PhD. Primary Co-Investigators are Anders Dale, PhD; Fred Gage, PhD, and Ming Tsuang, MD, PhD, DSc.

The UCSD ACE projects encompass the first-ever high-impact use of neural stem cell models to study the biology of autism. These models hold great promise in setting the pace for a new era of discovery of genetically and neurodevelopmentally targeted biotherapeutics for autism. Equally innovative is Dr. Pierce’s extraordinary plan—1-Year Well-Baby Check-Up Approach—for working with pediatricians throughout San Diego County to detect infants and toddlers at-risk for autism at the earliest age possible. The physicians will make their referrals on the basis of a checklist of behaviors that are similar to those of older children with autism spectrum disorders. The primary goal of this center is to identify brain or other physical differences that might predispose a child to autism. The UCSD Center will collect some of the first comprehensive data sets ever obtained on how the brains of very young children with autism process and respond to information.

As part of a national network of Autism Centers of Excellence, the UCSD ACE will contribute to the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR), a collaborative biomedical informatics system currently being created by the National Institutes of Health to support and accelerate autism research and to inform and enhance clinical practice. As a national resource encompassing genomic, imaging, laboratory, clinical, and behavioral data sources, NDAR will provide the core technology for a data warehouse, a data-entry system, and a centralized repository for common measures and their documentation.

Dr. Courchesne's research efforts are complemented by teaching activities. The laboratory consistently includes a number of outstanding graduate and undergraduate students. Basic Neuroscience 200 is the core course for all first-year neuroscience graduate students. Together with Dr. Steven A. Hillyard, Dr. Courchesne developed Basic Neuroscience 200C, which is the third quarter of the course. In addition, he continues to participate actively in the Graduate Program, serving as Chair or Co-Chair of dissertation committees. He regularly lectures in Basic Medical Neurology and in the School of Medicine course Introduction and Orientation to Research.

Dr. Courchesne is frequently invited to lecture at major conferences and symposia and has also made numerous media appearances, including as a featured guest on public television. He is a member of numerous advisory boards, including Autism-France and the Autism Society of America. He has served as a reviewer for many journals, including Science and Journal of Neuroscience.