SFARI's 2022 Genomics of ASD: Pathways to Biological Convergence and Genetic Therapies RFA is now open. Grants awarded through this RFA are intended to improve our understanding of the molecular and cellular consequences of genetic risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and to provide a foundation for the development of new therapies.

Zebrafish lines for autism risk genes DYNC1H1 and MEF2C have been recently added to SFARI resources to study autism spectrum disorder.

SFARI would like to remind investigators to please acknowledge SFARI funding and/or the use of SFARI resources, biospecimens and data in all relevant preprints and publications.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SFARI replaced the in-person spring 2020 science meeting that was scheduled April 5–7 with a series of seven weekly webinars held between April 17 and May 29.

Caroline Robertson and colleagues developed a novel paradigm that provided direct neural evidence for slower binocular rivalry in autism. They also demonstrated a causal link between GABAergic inhibition and rivalry in neurotypical individuals, suggesting that this tool may serve as a noninvasive marker of inhibitory signaling in the brain.

A uniform call-set of joint variant calls, including single-nucleotide variants and indels, for 9,209 samples with whole-genome sequencing data from the Simons Simplex Collection is now available.

Autism BrainNet has established a new collaboration with the Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank. This alliance will allow Canadian individuals and families the opportunity to consider making a postmortem brain donation to help advance autism research.

This issue of the SFARI newsletter includes: (1) 2018 Bridge to Independence awardees announced, (2) A new version of SFARI Base has launched, (3) SFARI Gene: New data release, (4) SFARI workshop discussed digital tools for phenotyping cognition and behavior in autism spectrum and other brain disorders, (5) SFARI-funded publications, (6) 2019 Research Awards – Request for applications, (7) Past lecture: André Fenton, “Rethinking autism and animal models: A systems perspective”, (8) Past lecture: Pawan Sinha and Dagmar Sternad, “The predictive impairment hypothesis in autism: An empirical assessment”.

Family-organized groups are planning a number of meetings in 2019 for individuals with rare genetic neurodevelopmental conditions, including those due to 16p11.2 copy number variants and mutations in ASXL3, PACS1, PPP2R5D, SCN2A and STXBP1 single genes. SFARI can help to facilitate research opportunities at these meetings by connecting investigators with families.

New data were added to SFARI Gene in April 2018. This data release included updated gene scores for candidate autism risk genes, as well as the addition of new genes, animal models, and copy number variant loci associated with autism.