Maaisha Osman was the Spring 2023 editorial intern at Spectrum, writing articles about the latest in autism research. She graduated from the Northeastern Journalism School in Boston, Massachusetts, and was an editor at Storybench — a digital publication on media innovation. Her work has appeared in STAT, The Bay State Banner and other local news outlets in Boston. You can find her on Twitter @MaaishaO.

Maaisha Osman
Former news intern
Spectrum
From this contributor
Abundant motor proteins disrupt cries in FOXP2 mice
Knocking down the gene that codes for the proteins normalizes the vocalizations.

Abundant motor proteins disrupt cries in FOXP2 mice
Two scientists, two interventions: A ‘gentle rivalry’ to aid autistic children
Minimally verbal autistic preschoolers gained new words and phrases in a head-to-head comparison of two interventions.

Two scientists, two interventions: A ‘gentle rivalry’ to aid autistic children
Medicaid waivers curb disenrollment among autistic young adults
Autistic people tend to drop out of Medicaid once they reach adulthood in states that don’t waive the income restrictions on enrollment.

Medicaid waivers curb disenrollment among autistic young adults
Autism intervention before age 2 may aid social, language skills
Autistic toddlers who receive a personalized intervention at about 18 months of age gain more abilities than those who start the therapy nine months later.

Autism intervention before age 2 may aid social, language skills
Black and women researchers are less likely to hold three or more NIH grants simultaneously
A growing proportion of researchers has reached such “super principal investigator” status, but the distribution is not even across demographic groups.

Black and women researchers are less likely to hold three or more NIH grants simultaneously
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Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State
Aligning Research to Impact Autism, a new initiative funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, wants to bring basic science discoveries to the clinic faster.

Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State
Aligning Research to Impact Autism, a new initiative funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, wants to bring basic science discoveries to the clinic faster.
This paper changed my life: Shane Liddelow on two papers that upended astrocyte research
A game-changing cell culture method developed in Ben Barres’ lab completely transformed the way we study astrocytes and helped me build a career studying their reactive substates.

This paper changed my life: Shane Liddelow on two papers that upended astrocyte research
A game-changing cell culture method developed in Ben Barres’ lab completely transformed the way we study astrocytes and helped me build a career studying their reactive substates.
Dean Buonomano explores the concept of time in neuroscience and physics
He outlines why he thinks integrated information theory is unscientific and discusses how timing is a fundamental computation in brains.
Dean Buonomano explores the concept of time in neuroscience and physics
He outlines why he thinks integrated information theory is unscientific and discusses how timing is a fundamental computation in brains.