John Rodakis, the boy’s father, reported on the case in the scientific journal Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease and suggested it merits an international investigation into the links between autism and the body’s microbiome — the collection of microorganisms that live on and in us.
 

Rodakis — a medical venture capitalist with a background in molecular biology and a Harvard MBA — said his reading of medical literature uncovered a 1999 study by Chicago Rush Children's Hospital that documented a similar phenomenon in autistic children. After speaking with other parents and clinicians he found improvements on antibiotics like the one his son experienced were frequently observed, but not well studied.
 

"I was determined to understand what was happening in the hope of helping both my son and millions of other children with autism," he said.
 

He approached Richard Frye, M.D., head of the Autism Research Program at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, to begin a research trial to try to understand this unusual phenomenon and to hold a scientific conference on autism and the microbiome.
 

"Careful parental observations can be crucial. In science we take these observations, put them through the scientific method, and see what we find. This is what can lead to ground-breaking scientific discoveries and breakthroughs in the field," said Dr. Frye.
 

Last June, the group held a first-of-its-kind conference co-sponsored by Rodakis' newly formed non-profit N of One: Autism Research Foundation. As a result of that conference, a special issue on autism and the microbiome was just published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease — including Rodakis’ personal story of his child's experience and the latest research into possible biological mechanisms at work.
 

"Current research is demonstrating that gut bacteria play previously undiscovered roles in health and disease throughout medicine,” Rodakis said. “The evidence is very strong that they also play a role in autism. It's my hope that by studying these antibiotic-responding children, we can learn more about the core biology of autism."