Two SFARI Investigators are among the 84 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences.

This issue of the SFARI newsletter includes: (1) Upcoming changes to SFARI’s requests for grant applications, (2) SFARI Gene: New data release, (3) SFARI Investigators elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, (4) SFARI booths at INSAR 2018, (5) SFARI presentations at INSAR 2018, (6) Special Interest Group at INSAR 2018: Promoting partnerships between patient advocacy groups and researchers to improve autism research, (7) Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell survey.

SFARI Investigators and SFARI science staff will be giving a number of oral presentations at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) 2018 Annual Meeting in Rotterdam, Netherlands (May 9-12).

SFARI science staff will be presenting a number of posters about SFARI projects and resources at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) 2018 Annual Meeting in Rotterdam, Netherlands (May 9-12).

Six current and former SFARI Investigators are among the 213 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

SFARI’s requests for grant applications will be undergoing a number of changes in the coming months. These changes include ending the Explorer Award program, updating the Pilot Award program to have twice-yearly receipt dates, and having a revamped Research Award program with an annual receipt date.

This issue of the SFARI newsletter includes: (1) SPARK's first year: A new paper describes goals and milestones, (2) Simons Variation in Individuals Project (Simons VIP): New data release, (3) SFARI announces the launch of HumanBase, (4) Highlights of SFARI-funded research, (5) Upcoming lecture: Elise Robinson, "The NeuroDev collaboration: Building autism spectrum disorder cohorts of international research value in Kenya and South Africa", (6) Past lecture: Shafali Spurling Jeste: "On the road to precision health: Brain-based biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder", (7) Past lecture: Matthew Siegel, "Arousal, emotion regulation and challenging behaviors: Insights from the Autism Inpatient Collection", (8) Past lecture: Daniel Geschwind, "Autism genetics: Searching for coherence".

SFARI announces the launch of HumanBase, a Simons Foundation interactive web server for predictions and information about human genes, pathways and disorders.

SFARI announces that a new article summarizing the first year’s activities of SPARK — a SFARI-funded study that aims to recruit, engage and retain 50,000 individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their family members — was published in the journal Neuron.