SFARI is pleased to announce that it made five awards as part of the SPARK Research Match DEI request for applications. These projects aim to address historic racial disparities in research participation by Black or African American individuals by soliciting studies on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that recruit Black or African American participants.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 50 brains in the Autism BrainNet collection are now available for research purposes. Additional data will be released in the coming months.

New Simons Searchlight data were recently added to SFARI Base. This data release included phenotypic data from individuals with 16p11.2 copy number variants (CNVs), 1q21.1 CNVs, 7q11.23 duplication and variants in 32 single genes associated with autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

The Bridge to Independence Award program serves as an overall scientific support system to help early-career scientists successfully launch their independent research positions. Fellows receive a commitment of $495,000 over three years, activated upon assumption of a tenure-track professorship, as well as a designated $10,000 gift for professional development activities to be spent during the transition year.

SFARI is pleased to announce that seven Director Awards were awarded in 2021. These projects include, but are not limited to, studies that aim to develop new tools and resources for autism research and studies whose goals are beyond the focus of existing SFARI request for applications.

New phenotypic and genomic data are available from participants enrolled in SPARK. Currently available data include phenotypic information from 283,520 people, including more than 111,000 individuals with ASD, as well as whole-exome sequencing and genome-wide genotyping data from 72,262 participants; of these, 3,227 genomes and 31,641 exomes are from individuals with ASD.

Simons Searchlight will host the CSNK2A1, HIVEP2, MED13L and SETBP1 Family and Scientific Conference on Aug 4-7, 2022, in Baltimore. Basic and clinical researchers, carriers of these genetic changes and their families are invited to participate.

SFARI is pleased to announce that it intends to fund 17 grants in response to the 2021 Pilot Award request for applications.