February 2011 – Drs. Ben Philpot, Mark Zylka, and Bryan Roth were awarded a prestigious grant from the Simons Foundation to identify drug-like compounds for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders. This research includes work with an animal model of Angelman syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by inactivation of the Ube3a gene. Drs. Philpot, Zylka and Roth are affiliated with the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, UNC Neuroscience Center, the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology (Philpot, Zylka) and the Department of Pharmacology (Roth).

Further details can be found at the Simons Foundation website. Also see the lab websites for Drs. Philpot, Zylka, and Roth.