Teen is on front lines of autism clinical trialShe lives in a
world no one else can enter, unable to speak or interact with
others. But 16-year-old Rebecca Singer may be playing an
important role in science. By: Barbara Williams , The Record
(Hackensack N.J.) HACKENSACK, N.J. — She lives in a world no one
else can enter, unable to speak or interact with others. But
16-year-old Rebecca Singer may be playing an important role in
science. Rebecca has become the first patient in a clinical
trial testing a drug that researchers hope could pull her out of
her reality and eventually lead to a groundbreaking autism
treatment. In the study led by the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine and assisted by a research team from Rutgers
University, the Tenafly, N.J., girl is taking a growth factor
hormone that was shown to reverse in mice some of the deficits
associated with autism. Researchers aren’t expecting a cure but
are hopeful for a "disease modifying" outcome, said Dr. Alex
Kolevzon, one of the physicians working on the s