Manuel F. Casanova is the SmartState Endowed Chair in Childhood Neurotherapeutics and a professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.

He is a former Gottfried and Gisela Kolb Endowed Chair in Outpatient Psychiatry and a Professor of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology at the University of Louisville.

[4] He is married to Emily Casanova, a research assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville[5] who studies autism genetics, the evolution of susceptibility genes in rare disorders, and is a patient advocate for the Ehlers-Danlos community.

After serving as a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Medical College of Georgia, he subsequently joined the University of Louisville faculty.

His interest has gradually come to focus on abnormalities of cortical neurocircuitry, in particular on the cell minicolumn, a vertical conglomerate of eighty to one hundred neurons that have in common a latency of response to stimulation.

The studies that he conducted show that minicolumns (or 'brain strands') of autism spectrum individuals have more cells, but they are narrower and more densely packed, which he says can limit the brain's ability to send messages.

[13] His expertise in the field of postmortem techniques was recognized by honorary appointments as a Scientific Expert for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and as a Professorial Lecturer for the Department of Forensic Science at George Washington University.

[19] Casanova states that the concepts behind neurodiversity originated in ancient Greek times, when Socrates attempted to determine which behaviors were a disorder and which ones were simply differences.

[22] Casanova has also written against Silberman's apparent perspective that Hans Asperger, one of the first autism researchers, should be forgiven for his involvement in the Nazi regime.