Maya Hammoud

Maya Hammoud is the co-founder and co-CEO of The Perception Foundation, a youth-led nonprofit focused on neurodiversity inclusion, mental health advocacy, sensory spaces, and education. She is also a student researcher at Detroit Country Day School whose ASXL3 and fibroblast growth factor work explores biomarkers and potential therapeutic approaches for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Young Researchers Target Diagnostic and Modeling Bottlenecks in Pediatric Health

At Aspen Ideas: Health, Francis Collins moderated three teenage researchers whose work targets gaps between biological evidence and clinical care. Maya Hammoud described an organoid model linking ASXL3 loss to neuron deficits in neurodevelopmental disorders; Claire Jiang presented a cell model intended to make juvenile idiopathic arthritis easier to study; and Edward Kang argued that AI analysis of retinal images could help refer children for autism or ADHD evaluation earlier, without replacing behavioral diagnosis.

The Aspen InstituteJun 24, 202621 min read