Autism Research Focus of Major NIMH Initiative

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded almost $10 million in grants to six new research centers to study the biological basis of autism and advance treatments for those with autism.

The funding is part of a larger initiative of NIH called the Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment Centers Program (STAART), which is funded by the NIH Autism Coordinating Committee.

“This major network of centers will accelerate advances in our knowledge about autism causes and treatments and help us to achieve our mission of reducing the burden associated with autism spectrum disorders,” said Thomas Insel, M.D., in an NIH press release last month.

Insel is director of the National Institute of Mental Health and chair of the NIH Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee.

The STAART centers that received funding are located at the University of Washington in Seattle, which received $1.6 million to research autism; University of California, Los Angeles, $1.4 million; Boston University, $1.7 million; University of Rochester, $1.5 million; Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, $1.5 million; and Mt. Sinai Medical School, $1.6 million.

Last year NIH funded two STAART autism researchers at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and at Yale University.

Investigators at each STAART center will use the grant money to conduct research on autism’s causes, diagnosis, early detection, prevention, and treatments.

This year’s grants are just the beginning—NIH is expected to spend $65 million over the next five years on the eight autism research centers, according to the press release. ▪