Date Published: March 21. 2023

In this recorded webinar, Heather Volk Ph.D., M.P.H., reviews the literature on the environment in autism, discusses existing studies of gene-environment interaction in autism, and highlights emerging research on gene-environment interaction in cohorts, including SPARK.

Who is Heather Volk?

Heather E. Volk, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), and jointly appointed in the Departments of Epidemiology and Environmental Health and Engineering. She is the Director of the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities in the JHSPH, co-Director of the NICHD-funded Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), and co-Director of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Traning Program, supported by a Institutional Training grant (T32) from the National Institute of Mental Health. She is also co-Principal Investigator for the Johns Hopkins/Kennedy Krieger Institute site of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study and co-Principal Investigator for an Autism Centers of Excellent (ACE) Network focused on gene-environment interaction in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ASD related traits, and co-occurring health conditions. She, along with her team, studies how environmental and genetic factors work together to confer likelihood for neurodevelopmental outcomes, including ASD.

• Presentation Slides (PDF)
• Read the companion SPARK article “What Role Does the Environment Play in Autism?“