To ensure that our funding is as impactful as possible, SFARI will be undergoing a strategic planning process in the first half of 2024. We have thus adjusted our request for applications (RFA) schedule to ensure that the SFARI science team can devote sufficient time and energy to this effort. In 2024, we will hold the Bridge to Independence (BTI) RFA, and one call for Pilot Awards, in tandem with a call for continuation funding for former Pilot Award grantees whose projects have been successful. We will also hold a targeted RFA on Bridging Early Neurodevelopment and Emerging Neural Circuits, as well as a call for proposals for an updated version of SFARI Gene.

Two studies by different research groups — one led by Flora Vaccarino and the other by Juergen Knoblich — used brain organoids derived from pluripotent stem cells of people with autism and showed how transcriptional alterations affecting certain cell types during human brain development could contribute to the early emergence of ASD.

A number of presentations will be given by SFARI Investigators at Neuroscience 2023, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.