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Research & Giving News Article

Effort to Establish International Autism Database Led by NARSAD Scientific Council Member
2000 DNA samples being sought to help identify autism risk factors

(Great Neck, N.Y. - ) — An international research project has been launched to gather DNA samples from 2000 autism patients and their families over the next three years. The initiative, called the Simons Simplex Collection, is the first coordinated effort to create a database of information about families with only one autistic child. NARSAD Scientific Council member Edwin H. Cook, M.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the Autism Center of Excellence at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the study�s principal investigator.

Dr. Cook states: "This collection of DNA will allow researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at other centers to identify genetic factors that increase the risk of autism and to potentially develop interventional therapies and new drugs for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders."

Other sites participating in the study are Baylor University, Columbia University, Emory University, Harvard University, McGill University in Montreal, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Michigan, the University of Missouri, the University of Washington, Vanderbilt University, Washington University and Yale University.

The DNA gathered will be stored at a central repository and will aid scientists from around the world who are searching for the causes of autism, an often devastating and lifelong disorder that appears during the first three years of life. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one of every 150 8-year-old children is diagnosed with some form of autism spectrum disorder, which occurs in all populations and socioeconomic groups and is four times more likely to affect boys than girls.

Families eligible to participate in the study include those with only one child with an autism spectrum disorder, age four or older; one or more siblings without an autism spectrum disorder, age four or older; and unaffected biological parents who are willing to participate. Eligible children with an autism spectrum disorder will receive a behavioral assessment and all family members will donate blood, a source of DNA. A small number of families with no siblings or siblings under the age of four may also be eligible. Those interested in participating in the study should contact Jackie Klaver at (312) 413-4512 or jklaver@uic.edu.

_{(This news article was adapted with permission from the University of Illinois at Chicago.)}

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