The Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (RFK-IDDRC) and its programs represent the hub of Einstein’s research labs and patient clinics focused on intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). Founded more than 40 years ago, the RFK-IDDRC has long been at the forefront of research on normal and abnormal brain development and function, and of clinical care for children with IDDs. Today, with reinvigorated leadership, the RFK-IDDRC is dissolving barriers between neuroscience and genetic research; fostering new and productive collaborations between basic scientists and clinicians; and advancing knowledge about and treatments for IDDs impacting children.
With access to state-of-the-art equipment and techniques, RFK-IDDRC scientists are leading the way in research on autism, Rett, Fragile X, Niemann-Pick C and other genetic and neurometabolic disorders, on seizure disorders, on deafness and communication disorders and on understanding the impact of the environment and nutrition on brain development and maturation.
Bridges built between RFK-IDDRC investigators and clinicians also are allowing advancement of translational studies designed to bring bench research discoveries to the bedside as new and innovative therapies.
Einstein's Kennedy Center is also one of the oldest designated University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Research, Education and Service (UCEDD) funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. Significantly, the Kennedy IDDRC also has intimate links to the UCEDD's clinical arm, Einstein's Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), which provides clinicians and investigators the challenge and opportunity to work with large numbers of IDD-related conditions in the genetically diverse and socioeconomically compromised population of the Bronx. The UCEDD is also home to the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Program, one of only 38 in the United States, which supports interdisciplinary clinical training for medical and allied health professionals who care for individuals with special healthcare needs. The Rose F. Kennedy Center is one of only a handful of centers in the nation with connections to all three of these important programs.
Learn more about CERC and the RFK-IDDRC program.
A Message From the Director
While the Rose F. Kennedy Center has a 40-year history as an NIH-sponsored Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, it is now experiencing a veritable renaissance in its programs and outreach to scientists and clinicians at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals. For this center without walls, newly facilitated efforts by the Kennedy Center leadership are underway to bridge the disciplines of neuroscience and genetics and build productive collaborations between basic scientists and clinicians whose activities involve intellectual and developmenal disabilities in children. New ties have been forged between basic scientists in the Kennedy Center program and clinicians within Einstein’s largest pediatric care center, known as CERC (Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center), whose patient outreach encompasses the genetically diverse and socioeconomically compromised community of the Bronx. Read more...