The National Alliance for Autism Research has recently committed $6.2 million to fund 40 research grants and fellowships in the U.S., Canada and Europe focusing on a wide range of disciplines, including the neurosciences, language and communication, behavioral sciences and genetics. NAAR's 2004 funding commitment also contains financial support for two collaborative projects with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The NAAR Board of Trustees approved this year's funding commitment following the eighth annual meeting of the organization's Scientific Advisory Board. NAAR's 2004 research commitment totals include $4 million to fund 25 pilot studies, 14 pre- and post-doctoral fellowships and ongoing funding for training programs in Canada co-sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In addition, NAAR has committed $2 million towards the NAAR Autism Genome Project, a NIH partnership that is the largest research collaboration ever to focus on the genetics of the disorder; and $200,000 towards expansion of the Autism Tissue Program, a parent-led brain tissue donation program dedicated to autism research and jointly supported by the NIH.
NAAR's 2004 research commitment represents an increase of approximately $1.3 million over last year's commitment. NAAR funds autism research projects based on the recommendations of its prestigious Scientific Advisory Board and its Lay Review Committee.
NAAR-funded pilot studies and fellowships have proven to be a sound investment. To date, research initially funded by NAAR has made a dramatic impact on the autism research landscape in North America and Europe and has been leveraged to attract more than $48 million in autism research awards by the National Institutes of Health and other governmental sources.
NAAR has been able to again increase its funding commitment to autism research due to the remarkable support of its donors and the amazing success of its Walk F.A.R. for NAAR autism research walkathons and the dedicated volunteers who bring these events to life.
Including the 2004 research awards, NAAR has now committed $21.1 million to directly fund more than 200 research projects and fellowships worldwide - more than any other non-governmental organization in the U.S.
Pilot Studies:
Arthur Beaudet, Ph.D.,
Baylor College of Medicine
(Houston, TX)
Search for an Autism Gene on the Y Chromosome
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Benjamin Cheyette, Ph.D.
University of California- San Francisco
(San Francisco, CA)
Neural Development and Function of DPR genes
Two-Year Award- $118,494
Davide Comoletti, Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego
(San Diego, CA)
Neuroligin and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Role of R451C Mutation in Neuroligin-3
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Lisa Croen, Ph.D.
Kaiser Permanente - Division of Research
(Oakland, CA)
Biologic Markers of Maternal Infection and Immune Function in Autism
Two-Year Award- $119,680
Karen Dobkins, Ph.D.
University Of California, San Diego
(San Diego, CA)
Neural and Behavioral Precursors to Autism in Infancy
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Jonathan Freedman, Ph.D.
Duke University
(Durham, NC)
Double Hit Hypothesis of Autism: Susceptibility and Environmental Exposure to Metals
Two-Year Award - $120,000
J. Jay Gargus, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine
(Irvine, CA)
Energy-deficient Metabolic Phenotype in Subgroups of Autism
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Samie Jaffrey, Ph.D.
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
(Ithaca, NY)
Analysis of Synaptogenesis Signal Transduction Pathways that are Defective in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Two-Year Award- $99,000
Boutheina Jemel, Ph.D.
Riviere des Prairies Hospital, Fernand Seguin Research Center
(Montreal, Canada)
Top-Down Mechanisms on Visual Perception in Autism: An Event-Related Brain Potential Investigation
Two-Year Award- $104,820
Robert Joseph, Ph.D.
Boston University School of Medicine
(Boston, MA)
Neurobiological Markers of Language Acquisition and Functioning in Autism
Two-Year Award- $117,075
Ami Klin, Ph.D.
Yale Child Study Center
(New Haven, CT)
Listening Preferences in Toddlers with Autism: The Playtest as an Early Screening Device
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Kenneth Kosik, Ph.D.
Brigham and Women's Hospital
(Boston, MA)
A Molecular Pathway Leading to Autism
Two-Year Award- $100,000
Dominic Massaro, Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Cruz
(Santa Cruz, CA)
Multisensory Integration by Children with Autism
Two-Year Award- $113,712
Daniel Messinger, Ph.D.
University of Miami
(Miami, FL)
Developing Deficits in Infant Siblings of Children with ASD: Emotional Communication and Psychophysiological Functioning
Two-Year Award- $105,891
Stewart Mostofsky, Ph.D.
Kennedy Krieger Institute, John Hopkins School of Medicine
(Baltimore, MD)
Dependent Motor Learning in Autism Examination of Visual Somatosensory
Two-Year Award- $117,019
Ruth Nass, Ph.D
NYU Medical Center
(New York City, NY)
Frequency and Pathophysiology of Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Children with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex
Two-Year Award- $53,359
Julia Noland, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University
(Nashville, TN)
Cognitive Control in the First Year of Life in Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Two-Year Award- $111,670
Peter Penzes, Ph.D
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
(Chicago, IL)
Regulation of Structural Plasticity of Excitatory Synapses
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Elizabeth Powell, Ph.D.
University of Maryland, Baltimore
(Baltimore, MD)
Regulation of Interneuron Proliferation
Two-Year Award- $119,152
Opal Ousley, Ph.D.
Emory University School of Medicine
(Atlanta, Georgia)
Assessing Functional and Anatomical Connectivity in Autism
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Howard Ring, Ph.D.
University of Cambridge
(Cambridge, England)
Testing the N400 as a Marker for Optimizing Information Presentation to People with Autism
Two-Year Award- $103,865
Sally Rogers, Ph.D.
University of California, Davis
(Davis, CA)
Neonatal Social Responses of Infant Siblings
Two-Year Award - $76,956
Trilochan Sahoo, Ph.D.
Baylor College of Medicine
(Houston, TX)
Development of a Genomic Microarray for Detecting Chromosomal Abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Two-Year Award- $117,590
Anne Sereno, Ph.D
University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center
(Houston, TX)
The Neurobiology of Social Visual Pursuit: Implications for Autism
Two-Year Award- $120,000
Linda Watson, Ph.D.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(Chapel Hill, NC)
Auditory Orienting and Language Outcomes in Children with Autism
Two-Year Award $115,338
Pre-Doctoral Fellows
IWK Health Centre/ Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Mentor: Susan Bryson, Ph.D.
Discriminative Validity and Physiological Correlates of Impaired Disengagement in Autism
University of Massachusetts
Boston, MA
Mentor: Alice Carter, Ph.D.
Social-cognitive Processing in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Pistcataway, NJ
Mentor: James Millonig, Ph.D.
Genetic Analysis of the Homeobox Transcription Factor ENGRAILED2 in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Mentor: James Haxby, Ph.D.
Investigations of the Mirror Neuron System in Autism
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
Mentor: Mark Strauss, Ph.D
Concept Abstraction and Face Recognition in Individuals with Autism
Carnegie Mellon University and Center for Excellence in Autism Research
Pittsburgh, PA
Mentor: Marlene Behrmann, Ph.D
Integration of Information and Functional Brain Connectivity in Autism
Birkbeck College, University of London
London, England
Mentor: Gergely Csibra. Ph.D.
Development of Early Prefrontal Functioning in AutismPost-Doctoral Candidates
Newcomen Centre
London, England
Mentor: Gillian Baird, Ph.D
Investigating the Biomedical and Psychological Characteristics of Children with ASD, Focusing on Language and Communication
Carnegie Mellon University and Center for Excellence in Autism Research
Pittsburgh, PA
Mentor: Marlene Behrmann, Ph.D
Face Processing in Autism: An Investigation on Multiple Levels
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York, NY
Mentor: Isabelle Rapin, Ph.D.
Stereotypies in Autism and Other Developmental Disorders as a Function of Age, IQ, and Severity of the Disorder
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
Mentor: John Rubenstein, Ph.D.
Regulation of Cortical GABAergic Neuronal Development and Function by the DLX Family of Transcription Factors
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, PA
Mentor: Beatriz Luna, Ph.D.
The Emergence of Object-processing Deficits in Autism: A Brain-based Investigation
John Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Mentor: Alex Kolodkin, Ph.D.
Regulation of Dendritic Morphology
Yale Child Study Center
New Haven, CT
Mentor: Robert Schultz, Ph.D.
MRI Studies of the Neurophysiological Bases of Autism Spectrum Disorders
