Dysregulation at the Blood Brain Barrier in Autism and Adult-Onset Macular Degeneration

A joint meeting of the NLM Family Foundation,  H. Eric Cushing Foundation, and C.J.L. Charitable Foundation

On April 9, 2025, the NLM Family Foundation hosted a Boston Club titled, “Dysregulation at the Blood-Brain Barrier in Autism and Adult-Onset Macular Degeneration,” a joint meeting of the NLM Family Foundation, H. Eric Cushing Foundation, and C.J.L. Charitable Foundation. It was co-chaired by Clarence Schutt, PhD, the Foundation’s Director & Chief Scientific Officer and Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, and Brian Hafler, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Science at Yale School of Medicine.

Recent spatial transcriptomic atlases for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and adult-onset macular degeneration (AMD) have ushered in a new era of molecular pathology, enabling pathophysiological processes to be interrogated across collaborating networks of cell types. In particular, microglial activation appears as a common theme for both ASD and AMD, as well as disruption of choroid structures by invading blood vessels. Dr. Brian Hafler led the effort to produce the transcriptomic atlas for AMD and suggested the topic for this Boston Club.

Jorge Ivan Alvarez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Neuroimmunology
Department of Pathobiology
University of Pennsylvania

Identifying Therapeutics for Autism
Matthew Anderson, MD, Ph.D.
Investigator and Co-Director
Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre
Sylvia K. Reitman Chair in Discovery and Innovation
Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals
Professor of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology
Case Western Reserve University

Stewart Anderson, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
Associate Chair for Research, Child Psychiatry
Associate Director, Lifespan Brain Institute
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
UPenn School of Medicine

Milena Andzelm, MD, Ph.D.
Instructor of Neurology
Boston Children’s Hospital

Malik Dahlan
Queen Mary University of London School of Law

Brian Hafler, MD, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Pathology
Yale School of Medicine

Jacob Hooker, Ph.D.
Scientific Director
Lurie Center for Autism
Massachusetts General Hospital

Roger Karlsson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences
The Wenner-Gren Institute
Stockholm University

Robert Landreth
Landreth Family Fund

Choroid plexus and cerebrospinal fluid-based signaling in the brain
Maria K. Lehtinen, Ph.D.
Hannah C. Kinney, MD, Chair in Pediatric Pathology Research
Boston Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pathology
Harvard Medical School

Profilin1 as a target to suppress pathological neovascularization
Partha Roy, Ph.D.
Professor of Bioengineering, Pathology, and Clinical and Translational Science
University of Pittsburgh

Human 3D Multicellular Engineered Models of Disease
Alice Stanton, Ph.D.
Senior Postdoctoral Associate
Kavanaugh Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Features of neuroimmunity in ASD: A brain imaging approach
Nicole R. Zurcher, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Radiology
Director of Human Imaging, Chemical Neuroscience Program, Martinos Center
Director of Neuroimaging, Lurie Center for Autism
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School

2025

The Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, Wellesley, MA