On March 25 and 28, 2022 SFARI hosted a workshop to explore the role of mitochondria in ASD risk. The workshop brought together experts in mitochondrial research spanning cellular, molecular, genetic, clinical and pharmacological areas and provided points for discussion on how to move this research forward.
The ASD-relevance of genes in the SFARI Gene database will be assessed according to a new scoring system called EAGLE (Evaluation of Autism Gene Link Evidence). This metric adds to SFARI Gene’s four ASD-confidence categories to provide an additional tool for assessing a gene’s specific association to ASD rather than neurodevelopmental conditions at large.
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.
On July 29, 2020, SFARI convened an online workshop to explore environmental (maternal and fetal) risk factors for autism spectrum disorder in the context of COVID-19 infection.
SFARI consultant-in-residence Gaspar Taroncher-Oldenburg discusses his work and collaboration with the Simons Foundation Flatiron Institute to study the microbiome and its potential implications for ASD research.
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 Investigator Aakanksha Singhvi discusses her lab’s work and how the Bridge to Independence Award helped in her transition to working as an assistant professor.
In conjunction with leading universities across the county, SFARI works to provide undergraduates with an opportunity to advance their careers in autism science while promoting diversity in the field through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program.
SFARI is pleased to announce that it intends to fund seven grants in response to the Autism Rat Models Consortium request for applications.
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.