This issue of the SFARI newsletter includes: (1) Third-party gene scores added to SFARI Gene, (2) SFARI Explorer Awards - Request for Applications, (3) Highlights of SFARI-funded research, (4) Upcoming lecture: Shafali Spurling Jeste, "On the road to precision health: Brain-based biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder", (5) Past lecture: Matthew Siegel, "Arousal, emotion regulation and challenging behaviors: Insights from the Autism Inpatient Collection".

This issue of the SFARI newsletter includes: (1) 2017 SFARI Pilot and Research, Explorer and Bridge to Independence Awards announced, (2) Simons Simplex Collection, (3) Simons VIP, (4) SPARK, (5) SFARI Gene, (6) SFARI channel on BioRxiv, (7) SFARI.org relaunch, (8) SFARI funding, (9) SFARI-funded publications, (10) Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series.

SFARI is happy to announce a new addition to the gene-scoring module of SFARI Gene: scores and rankings from an additional six published approaches to evaluating the strength of the evidence implicating each gene in autism risk.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has awarded 13 grants in response to the Explorer Awards request for applications this year.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has selected seven finalists in response to the 2017 Bridge to Independence Award request for applications.

This issue of the SFARI newsletter includes: (1) SFARI 2017 Pilot and Research awardees announced, (2) SFARI Gene: New data release, (3) Whole-exome sequencing of SPARK: New data release, (4) SFARI Social at Neuroscience 2017, (5) Presentations by SFARI Investigators at Neuroscience 2017, (6) 2018 Pilot and Research Awards -— Request for Applications, (7) Highlights of SFARI-Funded Research, (8) Upcoming lecture: Daniel Geschwind, “Autism genetics: Searching for coherence”, (9) Past lecture: Paola Arlotta, “Understanding autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders: From the embryo to brain organoids”, (10) Past lecture: David Ledbetter, “Leveraging long-term health data and exome sequencing for autism-related gene discovery”.

SFARI’s 2018 Pilot and Research Awards request for applications (RFA) is now open. Letters of intent are due by December 1, 2017.

This blog post accompanies the “SFARI’s 2018 funding priorities” post. In it, the SFARI science team discusses the application and review process for 2018 Pilot and Research Awards.

In this blog post, the SFARI science team provides insight into SFARI’s scientific priorities. A number of experimental design issues to consider when preparing a grant application in response to the 2018 Pilot and Research Awards RFA are also discussed.

The SFARI Gene website has been redesigned. The updated platform features a streamlined user interface and new data visualizations, which were engineered with the aim of making it easier for users to find the latest information about genes implicated in autism susceptibility.