PITTSBURGH, May 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Applied Isotope Technologies ("AIT") announced today that the company's Biochemimarker(TM) Discovery Products will be exclusively used for the analyses of samples from autistic children for metabolic biochemical assessment when they are placed in an Environmental Pediatric Room to be constructed at The Children's Institute in Pittsburgh, PA. Scott Faber, MD, a specialist in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) will lead a team of scientists for this pilot project that aims to study the effects of environmental factors on this debilitating set of disorders. Duquesne University's Skip Kingston, Ph.D., will conduct the analytical tasks and provide the biochemimarker data. Funding for the initial phase of the project was provided by Alcoa Company as a $200,000 grant. At the conclusion of the feasibility phase, the work will be expanded with funding from other sources, both public and private. According to Scott Faber, MD, the lead investigator, "the Alcoa grant gives The Children's Hospital an opportunity to explore the possible connections that may exist between environmental factors and autism.
" Matt Pamuku, CEO of AIT said, "The products offered by AIT, especially the consumable kits are tailor-made for this pioneering work. Through accurate profiling of biologically significant mercury species as a function of response to environment exposure, for example, some of the questions concerning thimerosal -- a mercury containing vaccine preservative -- might be answered." Mr. Pamuku added, "In the future, such measurements will reveal new information that may lead to better health risk assessment and early intervention choices for ASD similar to the currently mandated PKU tests that are done for all newborn babies in the US." PKU, or phenylketonuria, is an inborn error of metabolism that affects 1 in 10,000 babies. Identification of PKU in children at birth allows immediate intervention through a special diet that circumvents severe ASD-like disabilities.
Mr. Pamuku stated "There is an urgent need for an accurate biochemical diagnostic tool that will permit accurate assessment and early intervention of ASD which afflicts as many as 1 in 150 children in the USA today.
" AIT is a development stage company dedicated to biochemimarker discovery for new or improved disease diagnostics and more efficient therapy based on a new set of information about environmental factors affecting the onset and progression of many neurological and immunological diseases. The company is also the recipient of funding from the US Armed Forces for the development of a transportable Integrated Instrument Method System (IIMS) which is an automated sampling and detection device for highly accurate detection and identification of chemical and biological agents with AIT's core technologies integrated into the IIMS. Presently, AIT develops and sells EPA Method 6800 compliant consumable kits that are used in a special class of measurement instruments called mass spectrometers that are widely used in almost every laboratory involved in environment-related analytical work. AIT's patent-protected mercury speciation products, for example, facilitates accurate measurement of highly toxic mercury species, including methylmercury, ethylmercury and inorganic mercury, that can be found in some of the food sources, such as fish -- a popular food source.
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