SFARI today announced the launch of SPARK, an online research initiative designed to become the largest autism study ever undertaken in the United States. SPARK will collect information and DNA for genetic analysis from 50,000 individuals with autism — and their families — to advance our understanding of the condition’s causes and accelerate the development of new treatments and supports.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has selected six finalists in response to the Bridge to Independence Award request for applications. This new awards program is intended to invest in the next generation of top autism investigators by identifying talented early-career scientists and facilitating their transition to an independent research career.

Whole-exome sequencing and associated phenotypic data from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) are now accessible via WuXi NextCODE’s cloud-based database. This new platform allows researchers to view and analyze the data online and alongside other datasets, without needing to move or download the data files.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has awarded four grants in response to the Novel Outcome Measures for ASD Clinical Trials request for applications. These grants will support research that aims to develop and validate objective measures for use in clinical trials targeting core symptoms of ASD and disruptive behavioral symptoms commonly reported in individuals with ASD.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has awarded five grants in response to the Functional Screen of Autism-Associated Variants request for applications. These grants will support the development of medium- and high-throughput screens to test the functional effects of missense variants identified in the Simons Simplex Collection and other autism cohorts.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has awarded five grants in response to the Whole-Genome Analysis for Autism Risk Variants request for applications. We are also announcing plans for the release of whole-genome sequencing data from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) for analysis by the entire research community.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it has awarded 28 grants (15 Pilot Awards and 13 Research Awards) in response to the 2015 Pilot and Research Awards request for applications. 

Simons Foundation and Autism Speaks have entered into an agreement with the National Institutes of Health to align two of the world’s largest repositories of donated postmortem brain tissue for medical research: Autism BrainNet and the NIH NeuroBioBank.