Overview
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.
Learn more about CERC and the RFK-IDDRC program.
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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.
Featured IDDRC Investigator
Dr. Vytautas Verselis: Exploring the Hemichannel Properties of Cx26 Mutations-A cause of Syndromic Deafness
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, over 46 million people in the United States suffer from some form of communication impairment or disorder. For over 20 years, bio-physicist and channelologist, Vytas K. Verselis, Professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience has been studying structure/function relationships and gating mechanisms of a class of channels called connexins, Cxs, which form an essential communication pathway between cells. ...read more