The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) is pleased to announce the funding of 23 projects as part of its 2024 Pilot and Pilot Progression awards. The Pilot awards support novel, high-risk and exploratory projects that have the potential to yield transformative results in autism research. The Pilot progression awards provide continued support for projects initiated during SFARI Pilot awards that have advanced significantly and produced insights that justify an extension.
Awards from the 2024 cycle will provide over $9 million in total funding to 18 Pilot awards and 5 Pilot Progression awards. These grants will be funded by Simons Foundation and Simons Foundation International and administered by SFARI. The Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation (NLMFF) will provide co-funding for six of the awards, designated with an *.
“In partnership with the Simons Foundation, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation is pleased to support these outstanding cutting-edge projects at this pivotal time for autism research,” says NLMFF Director and Chief Scientific Officer Clarence Schutt.
“I am always impressed by the creativity and quality of the proposals we receive for this program,” says Kelsey Martin, Simons Foundation executive vice president of autism and neuroscience. “The projects selected this year represent a breadth of innovative ideas for advancing autism science, and we look forward to the discoveries they will enable.”
Pilot Award recipients include:
Lior Appelbaum, Ph.D. (Bar-Ilan University) and Gad Vatine, Ph.D. (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
The function of circular RNAs in fragile X syndrome
Mark Bathe, Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Multimodal synaptic profiling of patient-derived neuronal samples for the discovery of ASD therapeutics*
Joseph Buxbaum, Ph.D. (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
ASD gene therapy: Large-scale evaluation of small-molecule targeting of RNA for ASD therapeutics
Ruben Coen-Cagli, Ph.D. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine)
Testing computational theories of visual processing in ASD with a novel integrated approach
Jeremy Dasen, Ph.D. (New York University School of Medicine)
Exploring the potential spinal origins of motor phenotypes in mouse models of autism*
Joseph Dougherty, Ph.D. (Washington University in St. Louis)
A pilot platform for restoring autism gene expression
Yudong Gao, Ph.D. (Baylor College of Medicine)
Identifying functional convergence of autism risk genes in regulating sodium channel membrane trafficking
Maria Geffen, Ph. D. (University of Pennsylvania)
Neuronal mechanisms for differences in sound processing in mouse models of autism
Narayanan Kasthuri, M.D., Ph.D. (University of Chicago)
The connectome of developing circuits in mouse models of autism*
Ram Madabhushi, Ph.D. (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)
Convergent mechanisms underlying the expression of long autism risk genes and their effects on cortical circuit function
Christian Mayer, Ph.D. (Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence)
Epigenetic regulators ASH1L and SETBP1 in GABAergic neuron development and autism spectrum disorder*
Mala Murthy, Ph.D.(Princeton University)
Linking ASD risk genes to sensorimotor circuits for dynamic social communication
Jean-Paul Noel, Ph.D. (University of Minnesota)
Canonical computations in humans and mouse models of autism
Linda J. Richards, Ph.D. (Washington University in St. Louis)
Function of ARID1B and SWI/SNF complex interactors NFI and TCF4 in radial glial development
Benjamin Scott, Ph.D. (Boston University)
The role of the LC-NE system in perceptual deficits in a Shank3 mouse model
Lot de Witte, M.D., Ph.D. (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen Medical Center)
The role of microglia on aberrant neuronal network formation in autism spectrum disorder
Gregory Wyant, Ph.D. (Massachusetts General Hospital)
Determining the molecular function of autism risk gene deleted in autism 1*
Kevin Yackle, M.D., Ph.D. (University of California, San Francisco)
The impact of autism risk genes on oromotor behaviors*
Pilot Progression recipients include:
Julia Dallman, Ph.D. (University of Miami) and John Rawls, Ph.D. (Duke University)
Gut-intrinsic mechanisms of gastrointestinal dysmotility in animal models of autism
Devanand Manoli, M.D., Ph.D. (University of California, San Francisco)
Circuit mechanisms mediating social attachment deficits in ASD
Anna A. Penn, M.D., Ph.D. (Columbia University)
Placental neurosteroids in autism
Beatriz Rico, Ph.D. (King’s College London)
Parvalbumin interneuron deficits in MTORpathies associated with ASD
Xiaochang Zhang, Ph.D. (University of Chicago)
Targeting converging exons to treat autism spectrum disorders
