Shelby Grebbin was Spectrum’s editorial assistant. Before joining Spectrum, she was staff assistant at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. As a freelance journalist, she has covered stories related to public health, data transparency and prison health care. Shelby has a B.A. in journalism from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
Shelby Grebbin
Editorial Assistant
From this contributor
Researchers publish new dataset on minimally verbal autistic people
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published the first repository of vocalizations from minimally verbal autistic people. Those with few or no spoken words still produce a range of phonemes, or units of sound, that may serve as developmental markers or intervention targets.
Researchers publish new dataset on minimally verbal autistic people
By
Shelby Grebbin
18 May 2022 | 4 min read
Autism and menopause: Q&A with Rachel Moseley and Julie Turner-Cobb
Menopause poses significant challenges for autistic people, according to a small survey published in 2020 — the first to explore the transition among people with autism traits.
Autism and menopause: Q&A with Rachel Moseley and Julie Turner-Cobb
By
Shelby Grebbin
7 April 2022 | 5 min read
Web-based autism screening service raises a host of concerns
Neurona Health, a company in San Francisco, California, backed away from part of its newly launched services after Spectrum started reporting about them.
Web-based autism screening service raises a host of concerns
By
Shelby Grebbin
21 March 2022 | 6 min read
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The networks are plastic, connect brain regions that aren’t connected by neurons and may enable long-distance communication between astrocytes, a new preprint shows.
Astrocyte networks span large swaths of brain
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Calli McMurray
3 September 2025 | 5 min listen
New findings on Phelan-McDermid syndrome; and more
Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 1 September.
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Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 1 September.
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2 September 2025 | 2 min read
From bench to bot: Why AI-powered writing may not deliver on its promise
Efficiency isn’t everything. The cognitive work of struggling with prose may be a crucial part of what drives scientific progress.
From bench to bot: Why AI-powered writing may not deliver on its promise
Efficiency isn’t everything. The cognitive work of struggling with prose may be a crucial part of what drives scientific progress.
By
Tim Requarth
2 September 2025 | 8 min listen