Dr Michael Sorich
University of South Australia
Rotary Club of Dapto
Autism - 2010
Dr Michael Sorich is a pharmacist with diverse research interests including molecular modelling, autism, evidence based medicine, clinical informatics, and pharmacogenomics.
Dr Sorich completed a PhD on the molecular modelling of drug metabolising enzymes. Subsequently, he was awarded a NHMRC ‘CJ Martin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship’ that allowed him to gain experience in bioinformatics and pharmacogenetics at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis USA. He returned to Adelaide in 2006, as a lecturer in the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences at the University of South Australia.
Dr Sorich has received a number of awards for his research including a South Australian Young Tall Poppy Award in 2008, and a Denis Wade Johnson & Johnson New Investigator Award in 2006 from the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology.
In addition to his research and teaching, Michael is an enthusiastic science communicator. He is particularly passionate about engaging school students with science and educating the general public on contemporary medical issues such as personalised medicine.
SUMMARY OF PROJECT:
Investigating the link between gastrointestinal disturbance and aetiology of autism
Autism is a lifelong complex condition that imposes significant health, social and economic burdens on diagnosed individuals, their families and society. The number of people with autism in our community appears to have increased ten-fold in the last twenty years. Currently approximately 1 in 160 among primary school children are diagnosed with autism.
There are many proposed interventions that are currently used to manage autism. However only a few, such as applied behavioural analysis and some prescription medicines, have evidence showing they are of any benefit. The lack of useful interventions stems for a lack of understanding of what is causing autism. Additional, there are probably a range of different subgroups within the condition. There is a need for research to be targeted to defining the causes underpinning the different autism subgroups. If we have a better understanding of these causes, it will enable specific interventions to be developed and applied which will in turn result in improvements in an individual’s presentation.
The fundamental aim of this project is to better understand the role that bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract play in autism. The project will study a range of bacteria in children with autism and without autism to find which types of bacteria are more common in children with autism. The activity of the bacteria and the chemicals they produce will also be studied to get a better overall understanding.
Many people with autism have gut problems as well. The project also aims to see whether individuals with autism who have gut problems are more likely to have greater differences in gut bacteria compared to individuals with autism that do not have significant gut problems. This will be a first step towards defining specific subgroups of individuals within the wider definition of autism. Being able to identify subgroups will improve the chances of success in developing effective treatments for autism.