Elena Tenenbaum, PhD, of Providence, a researcher in Women & Infants' Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk, has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in translational autism research from Autism Speaks to help turn scientific discoveries into treatments that improve lives.

Dr. Tenenbaum's fellowship was announced as part of nearly $2.9 million in new funding for autism research that includes a Suzanne and Bob Wright Trailblazer Award, four targeted research studies, eight Weatherstone predoctoral fellowships, and nine postdoctoral fellowships in translational research.

This is a two-year award, and Dr. Tenenbaum will work with her primary mentor, Stephen Sheinkopf, PhD, of Women & Infants Hospital, and Dima Amso, PhD, of Brown University. The title of the project is "Attention and Word Learning in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder – Translating Experimental Findings into Intervention."

Dr. Tenenbaum explained, "I am honored to receive this fellowship.Through this, my colleagues and I will explore whether we can facilitate language acquisition in children with autism by drawing their attention to the information that is most relevant for language learning."

The Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk is dedicated to advancing theories of the developmental pathways from fetal and infancy periods in at-risk children, enhancing synergy between research and clinical practice that advances child development research, intervention programs and social policy, and training scientists and practitioners in interdisciplinary methods from the field of child development.

For information, visit womenandinfants.org or call (401) 274-1122, ext. 8935.

About Women & Infants Hospital

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation's leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A U.S.News Best Hospital in Gynecology, Women & Infants was ranked number one in the Providence metro area and a top-performer in cancer. The primary teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women's medicine, Women & Infants is the eighth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country with nearly 8,400 deliveries per year. In 2009, Women & Infants opened the country's largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

New England's premier hospital for women and newborns, Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation's only mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation's only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Center of Excellence from the American College of Radiography; a Center for In Vitro Maturation Excellence by SAGE In Vitro Fertilization; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health; and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence.It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute's Gynecologic Oncology Group and the National Institutes of Health's Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.