SFARI | Category: Uncategorized

2021 Autism BrainNet Appreciation Award: Recipients announced

SFARI announces the recipients of the Autism BrainNet Appreciation Award, a new honor that recognizes outstanding partners and collaborators for their dedication to advancing brain tissue research in autism.

Image of pregnant woman getting a check up from a doctor

SFARI workshop discusses opportunities to study maternal infection and autism risk during COVID-19 pandemic

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.

Bridge to Independence fellows meeting highlights research findings and plans of the next generation of SFARI autism scientists

On May 21, 2019, the recipients of the SFARI Bridge to Independence Award gathered at the Simons Foundation to discuss their scientific findings and plans in autism research.

SFARI Summer 2019 Pilot awardees announced

SFARI is pleased to announce that is intends to fund 12 grants in response to the Summer 2019 Pilot Award request for applications.

Workshop plumbs infancy for autism insights

On April 18, 2019, SFARI brought together autism specialists and child development experts to explore the short-lived yet critical period of infancy. Understanding how cognition, motor skills and language unfold during the earliest developmental stages of life may help detect autism earlier, parse subtypes and inform mechanistic studies in animal models.

A mouse model of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome shows reduced long-range connectivity and dysfunctional mitochondria

Anthony-Samuel LaMantia, Thomas Maynard and colleagues show that a mouse model of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome has fewer long-distance cortico-cortical connections, which is caused in part by mitochondrial dysfunction.

Two studies using SPARK’s research matching program attest to its effectiveness for rapid and large-scale testing of research questions

Two studies from Brigitta Monz, Richard Houghton and colleagues provide examples of the effectiveness of SPARK’s research match program to rapidly recruit thousands of individuals for the large-scale testing of research questions.

Brief treatment with statin yields long-term benefit in rat model of fragile X syndrome

Peter Kind and colleagues show that brief treatment with lovastatin results in sustained correction of physiological and behavioral deficits in a rat model of fragile X syndrome.

Single-nucleus RNA sequencing identifies brain cell types with significant changes in gene expression in autism

Using single-nucleus RNA sequencing of postmortem cortical tissue from individuals with ASD, Arnold Kriegstein and colleagues identify upper-layer excitatory neurons and microglia as key cell types affected in ASD.

Impaired reward circuitry during voice processing predicts social communication abilities in autism

Vinod Menon and colleagues report that a difference in the activation of a voice-processing network comprising reward and salience detection systems is a distinguishing feature of autism.