Deborah Rudacille earned an M.A. in science writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1998. She worked as a research writer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and as senior science writer at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Rudacille is the author of three books: The Scalpel and the Butterfly (2000), The Riddle of Gender (2004) and Roots of Steel (2010). She joined SFARI.org’s team as news editor in 2010.
Deborah Rudacille
Former News Editor
SFARI.org
From this contributor
The twenty-something free fall
Young adults with autism face many new expectations and challenges — with none of the support that is available during high school.
New clinical guidelines address gender dysphoria in autism
New recommendations urge clinicians to screen teenagers for autism when they seek treatment at gender clinics, and evaluate those with autism for gender concerns.

New clinical guidelines address gender dysphoria in autism
Living between genders
‘Trans’ people with autism express a gender at odds with societal expectations, or reject the male-female divide entirely. Many are breaking new ground on how identity is defined — and what it means to also have autism.
Nobel goals
On the occasion of Thomas Südhof winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, SFARI.org’s former news editor recalls their first meeting.
Autism rates higher among adults with low birth weight
Autism prevalence is five times higher in young adults born weighing 2,000 grams or less compared with controls, according to a study published 17 October in Pediatrics.

Autism rates higher among adults with low birth weight
Explore more from The Transmitter
Video catches microglia in the act of synaptic pruning
Live cell imaging reveals the clearest picture yet of this elusive process. Whether it’s something these cells do regularly remains up for debate.
Video catches microglia in the act of synaptic pruning
Live cell imaging reveals the clearest picture yet of this elusive process. Whether it’s something these cells do regularly remains up for debate.
Gabriele Scheler reflects on the interplay between language, thought and AI
She discusses how verbal thought shapes cognition, why inner speech is foundational to human intelligence and what current artificial-intelligence models get wrong about language.
Gabriele Scheler reflects on the interplay between language, thought and AI
She discusses how verbal thought shapes cognition, why inner speech is foundational to human intelligence and what current artificial-intelligence models get wrong about language.
Accepting “the bitter lesson” and embracing the brain’s complexity
To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, training large models on vast amounts of information. We asked nine experts on computational neuroscience and neural data analysis to weigh in.

Accepting “the bitter lesson” and embracing the brain’s complexity
To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, training large models on vast amounts of information. We asked nine experts on computational neuroscience and neural data analysis to weigh in.