Autism CRC at INSAR 2024
Around 1,200 researchers met in Melbourne from the 15-18 May for this year’s International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Conference, the first time it has been hosted in Australia. Over 100 autistic community members also attended the conference, which covered a diverse range of topics and perspectives from around the world.
Autism CRC was well-represented by a number of researchers, delivering oral and poster presentations (see list below).
The Autism CRC exhibition booth was very popular and created the perfect opportunity to share our broad breadth of work to a large international audience. It was obvious from these many conversations that while there’s still much to do to improve the lives of autistic Australian’s and their families, Australia is a leader in autism research, policy and practice, compared to many countries.
The conference also included the INSAR 2024 Awards Ceremony. Dr Chloe Yap was awarded a Dissertation Award for her work on the Autism CRC Genomics project using data from the Australian Autism Biobank.
In 2021, Dr Yap’s research team conducted ground-breaking research that successfully challenged the growing popular belief that the gut microbiome drives autism behaviour, finding that “fussy eating” was likely to be the cause instead. In 2023, the team investigated if fat molecules (lipids) contributed to sleep disturbances in autistic children, discovering a link between poor sleep and an unhealthy diet.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse was elected as a Fellow of the International Society for Autism Research, only the fourth Australian to receive such an honour.
We congratulate both Chloe and Andrew for these wonderful achievements, and our researchers, partners and supporters for highlighting the outcomes of so many collaborative projects.
Many of the poster presentations are now available on Knowledge Centre.
- Understanding the content validity and clinical utility of a quality of life measure designed with and for autistic adults
- How is the quality of life and wellbeing of autistic people measured?
- Getting autism support right in Aotearoa New Zealand: What could we do in the future?
- Community views on the assessment and diagnosis of autism: principles to guide clinical practice
- Update of the National Guideline for the assessment and diagnosis of autism in Australia
- "1,000" insights: views from the autistic and autism communities on the problems experienced by autistic people in education, physical health, mental health and the justice system
- Do general health, sleep quality and fatigue contribute to cardiovascular disease risk in autistic adults?
First image: Autism CRC Booth at Melbourne Convention Centre.
Second image: Autism CRC staff with INSAR researchers.
Third image: Professor Andrew Whitehouse and Dr Chloe Yap.
Fourth image: Rachelle Wicks presenting their research poster.
Fifth image: Ben Milbourne presenting their research poster.
Sixth image: David Trembath presenting their research poster.