Growing up in Puerto Rico, Héctor Sánchez Meléndez made up his mind to study the brain and go to medical school. But as a neuroscience major at the University of Iowa, he has discovered a passion for research. Now, he wants to establish a lab back home.

A new study that used genetic data from nearly 43,000 autistic individuals and their families has identified 60 autism spectrum-associated genes with exome-wide significance, including five new genes not previously implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders. University of Iowa scientists led by Jake Michaelson, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry in the UI Carver College of Medicine, contributed to the new study, which was published recently in Nature Genetics.

Aaron Boes, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the division of pediatric neurology, has been awarded the Roy J. Carver Professorship in Neuroscience in the Iowa Neuroscience Institute. The recognition honors his outstanding academic achievements and contributions to the Carver College of Medicine and Iowa Neuroscience Institute.