SFARI is pleased to announce that 10 Director Awards were awarded in 2019. These projects include, but are not limited to, studies that aim to enhance existing SFARI-sponsored cohorts and collections, generate novel resources (e.g., animal models) or did not fit into an existing investigator-initiated request for applications.

On June 22, 2019, families of people with DYRK1A syndrome gathered in Seattle to support one another and meet with researchers. A rare condition resulting from mutations to the kinase-encoding gene DYRK1A, the syndrome is associated with anomalous brain development and a range of symptoms, including microcephaly, seizures, speech delay and autism.

SFARI has recently implemented a number of changes to SFARI Gene, including modification of the gene scoring, copy number variant, animal models and protein interaction modules. Curation of the human gene module will continue as before.

A study from Matthew Anderson and colleagues identified an excess of T-lymphocytes in the postmortem ASD brain, which are prominently associated with astrocytes.

SFARI announces that it has selected five fellows in response to the 2019 Bridge to Independence Award request for applications.

Funds donated by SFARI to Gordon Research Conferences will now be allocated to support attendance of eligible early-career (pre-tenure) women, early-career trainees from historically underrepresented groups and scientists from the following ethnic and racial groups: Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

SFARI is now curating a set of zebrafish lines to study autism spectrum disorder. This includes mutant lines for 12 ASD risk genes, four of which are currently available to researchers and eight that will be available later this year.

SFARI director Louis Reichardt will leave SFARI this coming October.

SFARI has awarded four grants in response to the 2019 Novel Outcome Measures in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) request for applications. These grants will support the development and validation of outcome measures aimed at assessing core symptoms of ASD and behavioral changes following treatment.

Six current and past SFARI Investigators were among the 100 newly elected members of the National Academy of Medicine.