Tom Harkin

That's very informative. I appreciate that. We will be following that.

How many, do we know?

So, the first humans in the United States will be at the University of Pennsylvania, is that what you said?

So, will this be publicized?

Nearly every year, I keep hearing they're now going to move into primates.

So again, just to make sure I understand this, a couple of people have already been, already agreed to undergo this gene therapy in London?

One other area I want to cover with you, Dr. Schwartz, before I leave you here is, you didn't cover it in your thing, and I want to know if your Institute covers this--noise.

Kids with those plugs in their ears, listening to their iPods, and you don't know what volume you've got them cranked up to.

The noise levels we're subjected to all of the time, whether it's jet aircraft, automobile noise, just the noise around, is phenomenal.

Asthma--more and more kids getting asthma, it's amazing. But tracking with autism, what is going on?

I don't know the answer to that question, obviously.

Well, that is encouraging, and we need to move ahead as aggressively as possible, and I would like to know from you if the funding levels are adequate to move it as aggressively as possible?

But we don't use thimerosal any longer.

I thought it was a well-known fact that mercury in the bloodstream does affect the brain.

I've been a strong supporter of that, and we put the money in this year to continue that again.

There's some thought that maybe just the accumulation of that may have some affect on autism.

Somewhere between 20 and 30.

Are you looking, there was for some time this thought that Thimerosal was a leading cause.

It seems to me that you really ought to be really pushing the envelope on this to try to find these kind of patterns and getting more scientists involved and getting more grants.

That's all you're spending on looking at environmental aspects of autism? Is that what you're saying?

I'm always interested when people tell me they've doubled, or something's gone up by 100 percent.

Out of $637 million?

Anyway, you look at it, autism is almost epidemic right now.

Very good, I'll keep on top of this. We've been on it for several years, and I'm really interested in, again, pushing this ahead and advancing the early detection of that, and intervention on that program.

I don't mean to let up on it.