#SexCells: Investigating Parental Toxicant Exposures in the Etiology of Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders with Jill Escher
Please join us for a talk by Jill Escher, JD, MA, on December 4, 2024 at 2 pm ET on Zoom.
In a seeming paradox, research has found steadily increasing rates of autism while also finding the condition is strongly heritable. These phenomena may be at least partly reconciled, however, when viewed through the lens of genetic (germline) toxicology. In this presentation research advocate Jill Escher, MA, JD, shares the latest research showing how certain toxicant exposures, such as modern halogenated general anesthesia, to the parents can raise risk for neurodevelopmental pathology in the offspring, via parental germline perturbations, while also discussing implications for epidemiological investigations.
Jill Escher, JD, MA, is the founder of Escher Fund for Autism, a fund that supports autism programs and research. She also serves as president of the National Council on Severe Autism, secretary and past president of Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area, and co-chair of the Germ Cell SIG of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society. Her work has been published in Environmental Epigenetics, Biology of Reproduction, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, and the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. She is a former lawyer and is the mother of two children with idiopathic profound autism, Jonathan, 25, and Sophie, 18. More info: jillescher.com and escherfund.org.