The UC Davis MIND Institute (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) is a research and treatment center affiliated with the University of California, Davis, with facilities located on the UC Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento, California. The institute is a consortium of scientists, educators, physicians and parents dedicated to researching the causes of and treatments for autism spectrum disorders, fragile X syndrome, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The director of the MIND institute is Dr. Leonard Abbeduto. Origins Parents of autistic children led the drive to raise funds for the cause, anticipating the institute could become the premiere autism research institute in the world. Among the parents behind the institute are Chuck and Sarah Gardner, whose son Chas has been diagnosed with autism. Chuck is a Sacramento area building contractor and co-founder of the institute along with his wife, Sarah, a television anchorwoman for Sacramento (KCRA 3). The institute's largest contribution came from the California State Legislature, which provided $34 million to the institute for autism research. The efforts enabled construction of the institute's facility at the UC Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento. After the major funding from the State, Rick Rollens, the former Secretary of the California State Senate and one of the leaders in the effort to create the institute, said the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was funding genetic-oriented research into autism, and that the MIND Institute was created by parents demanding that scientists look at other causes. Interdisciplinary research teams The MIND Institute brings together experts in fields as diverse as molecular genetics and clinical pediatrics, using a multidisciplinary approach to treating and finding cures for neurodevelopmental disorders. David G. Amaral is the research director of the MIND Institute and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Center for Neuroscience, a neuroscientist who studies the organization of memory systems in the brain. Sally J. Rogers is a specialist in developmental psychology and professor of psychiatry and behavior science for the institute. Jacqueline Crawley is a behavioral neuroscientist and an expert on rodent behavioral analysis and the director of IDDRC Rodent Behavior Core in MIND Institute. Fragile X and fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome MIND institute has a major focus on studying neurodevelopmental disorders caused by genetic instability, e.g. fragile X syndrome. Randi J. Hagerman and Paul J. Hagerman have been studying genotype-phenotype correlations in fragile X and potential discovery of targeted treatment. Prevalence study In