2012
Teacher of the Year Award in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

2009
AACAP Outstanding Mentor Award

2007
Excellence in Teaching Award

2006
AAP Junior Faculty Development Award

2005
AACAP Pilot Research Award

2003
Richard L. Scharf Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence

2002
NIMH Outstanding Resident Award

2001
Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA)

2001
Teacher of the Year Award

Dr. Kolevzon's research interests include the biological causes and effective treatment of autism and related pervasive developmental disorders. He is also committed to medical student and residency training and education and interested in developing innovative educational programs.

Clinical Trials

A randomized, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled, safety and exploratory efficacy and pharmacokinetic study of R04917523 in pediatric patients with Fragile X Syndrome
This is a study to examine the efficacy and safety of RO4917523, an experimental oral medication that is an mGlur5 receptor antagonist in subjects aged 5-8 with Fragile X syndrome. All subjects will receive 12 weeks of treatment with RO4917523 or placebo in a double-blind, placeb...

Trichuris Suis Ova Treatment of Adult Autism Symptom Domains
This study is designed to assess the efficacy of a porcine whipworm on autism symptoms. There is a significant amount of evidence to suggest that patients with autism and their families have higher rates of immune system dysfunction, and immune dysregulation may be associated wit...

A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Parallel-Group Fixed-Dose Study of NNZ-2566 in Fragile X Syndrome
This is a Phase II randomized double-blind placebo-controlled parallel-group 42-day study to evaluate the safety and tolerability of NNZ-2566 in adolescent and adult males with Fragile X Syndrome. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the safety and tolerability o...

Piloting Treatment with Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) in Phelan McDermid Syndrome
The purpose of this study is to pilot the use of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) treatment in 22q13 Deletion Syndrome (Phelan-McDermid Syndrome) caused by SHANK3 gene deficiency in order to evaluate safety, tolerability, and efficacy. IGF-1 is an injection under the skin tha...

A Randomized, Double-Blind, 12-week, Parallel Group, Placebo-Controlled Study of the Efficacy and Safety of RO4917523 in Patients with Fragile X Syndrome
This is a study to examine the efficacy and safety of RO4917523, an experimental oral medication that is an mGlur5 receptor antagonist in subjects aged 14-17 with Fragile X syndrome. All subjects will receive 12 weeks of treatment with RO4917523 or placebo in a double-blind, plac...

Phelan-McDermid Syndrome: Insights into Synaptic Pathology and Novel Therapeutics in ASD
The purpose of this study is to pilot the use of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) treatment in Phelan-McDermid Syndrome in order to evaluate safety, tolerability, and efficacy for a core deficit of autism - social impairment. IGF-1 is an injection under the skin that contains...

Evidence-based Practices for Interventions to Improve the Health and Well-being of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of Family Peer Advocates to improve the health and well-being of children with autism spectrum disorders.  The goal of the proposed study is to expand the resources available to families within the autism spectrum disorder ser...

A Multi-Center, Randomized, Double-Blind, 12-Week, Parallel Group, Placebo-Controlled Proof of Concept Study to Investigate the Efficacy and Safety of RO5285119 in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
The study, called Vanilla (Vasopressin Antagonist to Improve Social Communication in Autism), is a pharmaceutical trial looking at the efficacy of a 12-week treatment with RO5285119 compared to placebo in treating social communication deficits in individuals with autism spectrum ...

A Pilot Treatment Study of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) in Autism
The proposed project will pilot the use of IGF-1 as a novel treatment for core symptoms of autism. We will use a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial design in five children with autism to evaluate the impact of IGF-1 treatment on autism-specific impairments in social...

A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of the Efficacy, Safety and Tolerability of STX209 (Arbaclofen) Administered for the Treatment of Social Withdrawal in Children with Fragile X Syndrome
This study examines the efficacy, safety and tolerability of STX209 (arbaclofen) on social motivation in subjects with Fragile X syndrome. It is hypothesized that STX209 will be associated with improvement in social withdrawal in subjects with Fragile X syndrome. All subjects wil...

Siper PM, Zemon V, Gordon J, George-Jones J, Lurie S, Zweifach J, Tavassoli T, Wang AT, Jamison J, Buxbaum JD, Kolevzon A. Rapid and Objective Assessment of Neural Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Transient Visual Evoked Potentials. PloS one 2016 Oct; 11(10).

Torres EB, Nguyen J, Mistry S, Whyatt C, Kalampratsidou V, Kolevzon A. Characterization of the Statistical Signatures of Micro-Movements Underlying Natural Gait Patterns in Children with Phelan McDermid Syndrome: Towards Precision-Phenotyping of Behavior in ASD. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience 2016 Jun; 10.

Øien RA, Siper P, Kolevzon A, Grodberg D. Detecting Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children With ADHD and Social Disability. Journal of attention disorders 2016 Apr;.

Rhodes R, Kolevzon A. Justice in Selecting Participants for a Study in Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 2016 Apr; 16(4).

Mieses AM, Tavassoli T, Li E, Soorya L, Lurie S, Wang AT, Siper PM, Kolevzon A. Brief Report: Sensory Reactivity in Children with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2016 Feb;.

Wang AT, Lim T, Jamison J, Bush L, Soorya LV, Tavassoli T, Siper PM, Buxbaum JD, Kolevzon A. Neural selectivity for communicative auditory signals in Phelan-McDermid syndrome. Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders 2016 Feb; 8.

Levine SZ, Kodesh A, Goldberg Y, Reichenberg A, Furukawa TA, Kolevzon A, Leucht S. Initial severity and efficacy of risperidone in autism: Results from the RUPP trial. European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists 2016 Jan; 32.

Costales J, Kolevzon A. The therapeutic potential of insulin-like growth factor-1 in central nervous system disorders. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2016 Jan;.

Tavassoli T, Bellesheim K, Tommerdahl M, Holden JM, Kolevzon A, Buxbaum JD. Altered tactile processing in children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research 2015 Nov;.

Harony-Nicolas H, De Rubeis S, Kolevzon A, Buxbaum JD. Phelan McDermid Syndrome: From Genetic Discoveries to Animal Models and Treatment. Journal of child neurology 2015 Sep;.

Tavassoli T, Bellesheim K, Siper PM, Wang AT, Halpern D, Gorenstein M, Grodberg D, Kolevzon A, Buxbaum JD. Measuring Sensory Reactivity in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Application and Simplification of a Clinician-Administered Sensory Observation Scale. Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2015 Sep;.

Grodberg D, Siper P, Jamison J, Buxbaum JD, Kolevzon A. A Simplified Diagnostic Observational Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Early Childhood. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research 2015 Aug;.

Gu X, Eilam-Stock T, Zhou T, Anagnostou E, Kolevzon A, Soorya L, Hof PR, Friston KJ, Fan J. Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder. Human brain mapping 2015 May;.

Costales JL, Kolevzon A. Phelan-McDermid Syndrome and SHANK3: Implications for Treatment. Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics 2015 Apr;.

Cochoy DM, Kolevzon A, Kajiwara Y, Schoen M, Pascual-Lucas M, Lurie S, Buxbaum JD, Boeckers TM, Schmeisser MJ. Phenotypic and functional analysis of SHANK3 stop mutations identified in individuals with ASD and/or ID. Molecular autism 2015 Apr; 6.

Soorya LV, Siper PM, Beck T, Soffes S, Halpern D, Gorenstein M, Kolevzon A, Buxbaum J, Wang AT. Randomized comparative trial of a social cognitive skills group for children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2015 Mar; 54(3).

Kolevzon A, Bush L, Wang AT, Halpern D, Frank Y, Grodberg D, Rapaport R, Tavassoli T, Chaplin W, Soorya L, Buxbaum JD. A pilot controlled trial of insulin-like growth factor-1 in children with Phelan-McDermid syndrome. Molecular autism 2014 Dec; 5(1).

Kolevzon A, Lim T, Schmeidler J, Martello T, Cook Jr EH, Silverman JM. Self-injury in autism spectrum disorder: An effect of serotonin transporter gene promoter variants. Psychiatry research 2014 Oct; 220(3).

Stein JA, Althoff R, Anders T, Davison Y, Edwards S, Frosch E, Horst R, Hudziak JJ, Hunt J, Joshi SV, Kitts RL, Larson J, Leckman J, O'Brien J, Lowenhaupt E, Pruitt D, Malloy E, Martin A, Partner A, Sarles R, Sikich L, Wells L, Kolevzon A. Does early mentorship in child and adolescent psychiatry make a difference? The Klingenstein Third-Generation Foundation Medical Student Fellowship Program. Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry 2013 Sep; 37(5).

Soorya L, Kolevzon A, Zweifach J, Lim T, Dobry Y, Schwartz L, Frank Y, Wang AT, Cai G, Parkhomenko E, Halpern D, Grodberg D, Angarita B, Willner JP, Yang A, Canitano R, Chaplin W, Betancur C, Buxbaum JD. Prospective investigation of autism and genotype-phenotype correlations in 22q13 deletion syndrome and SHANK3 deficiency. Molecular autism 2013 Jun; 4(1).

Sandin S, Hultman CM, Kolevzon A, Gross R, MacCabe JH, Reichenberg A. Advancing maternal age is associated with increasing risk for autism: a review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2012 May; 51(5).

Grodberg D, Weinger PM, Kolevzon A, Soorya L, Buxbaum JD. Brief report: the Autism Mental Status Examination: development of a brief autism-focused exam. Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2012 Mar; 42(3).

Girgis RR, Slifstein M, Xu X, Frankle WG, Anagnostou E, Wasserman S, Pepa L, Kolevzon A, Abi-Dargham A, Laruelle M, Hollander E. The 5-HT(2A) receptor and serotonin transporter in Asperger's disorder: A PET study with [¹¹C]MDL 100907 and [¹¹C]DASB. Psychiatry research 2011 Dec; 194(3).

Kolevzon A, Cai G, Soorya L, Takahashi N, Grodberg D, Kajiwara Y, Willner JP, Tryfon A, Buxbaum JD. Analysis of a purported SHANK3 mutation in a boy with autism: clinical impact of rare variant research in neurodevelopmental disabilities. Brain research 2011 Mar; 1380.

Bartz JA, Zaki J, Bolger N, Hollander E, Ludwig NN, Kolevzon A, Ochsner KN. Oxytocin selectively improves empathic accuracy. Psychological science 2010 Oct; 21(10).

Kolevzon A, Newcorn JH, Kryzak L, Chaplin W, Watner D, Hollander E, Smith CJ, Cook EH, Silverman JM. Relationship between whole blood serotonin and repetitive behaviors in autism. Psychiatry research 2010 Feb; 175(3).

Parikh MS, Kolevzon A, Hollander E. Psychopharmacology of aggression in children and adolescents with autism: a critical review of efficacy and tolerability. Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology 2008 Apr; 18(2).

Kolevzon A, Gross R, Reichenberg A. Prenatal and perinatal risk factors for autism: a review and integration of findings. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine 2007 Apr; 161(4).

Torres EB, Nguyen J, Mistry S, Whyatt C, Kalampratsidou V, Kolevzon A. Characterization of the Statistical Signatures of Micro-Movements Underlying Natural Gait Patterns in Children with Phelan McDermid Syndrome: Towards Precision-Phenotyping of Behavior in ASD. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience 2016; 10.