University Affiliated Programs target and engage in activities to support the independence, productivity, integration and inclusion into the community of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.

Dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with autism through intervention, education, professional training, and research aimed at effective treatments, prevention, and cure.

An evolving and developing organisation dedicated to enabling people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, parents, families and professionals to access information about the Autistic Spectrum.

Research on Diagnosis, Training, Early Identification; Brain Imaging; Brain Tissue; Animal Models; Genetics; Cognitive Neuropsychology; Comorbidity; Treatment; NIMH Human Genetics Initiative; Human Brain Project; Prevention Research Initiative.

Conducts behavioral studies, and genetic and environmental etiologic studies which are trying to understand the origins of autism and related disorders,

ARC brings together the largest group of scientists in the UK working to understand the causes of autism spectrum conditions.

A nonprofit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to researching the neurological underpinnings of autism and other related developmental brain disorders.

A collaborative group of researchers from around the country conducting several exciting projects that focus on the genetic bases, neurobiology, and neuropsychology of autism and related disorders.

Past research has included studies of pre-verbal communication in children with autism; adaptive behavior; social conversation skills; storytelling; emotion recognition; perception of social situations.

Each of the papers and idea-collections on this web page reflects not only a goodly amount of medical research but also reflects the wonderful determination of autism-children's parents who are seeking to find answers

Research into the biological basis of autism.

The National Institutes of Health support two major research networks dedicated to understanding and treating autism. This Web site provides a single source of information about these networks and the research they conduct. The Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism Network conducts research to learn about the possible causes of autism, including genetics, immunological, and environmental factors, as well as diagnosis, early detection, behavioral and communications characteristics, and treatment of autism. As one of the responses to the Children's Health Act of 2000, NIH established an autism research network, known as the Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART) Network.

Information is provided so that you may contact these researchers directly. Genome Scanning Projects, Other Genetic Studies, Hearing in Autism, Language and Communication, Movement and Sensory Processing, other programs.

A free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Autism, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, causes, effects.

The Unit was started in 1982 with 2 main aims: to provide a basis for research into the possible causes of autism; and to provide an accessible store of traditional and current research information on autism.

Autism Speaks and the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) have signed a memorandum of understanding to combine operations and bring together two of the leading organizations engaged in the battle against autism, it was announced today by Mark Roithmayr, president of Autism Speaks and Glenn Tringali, chief executive officer of NAAR. The two organizations expect to conclude all due diligence and final board approvals by January 31, 2006 and will collectively be known as Autism Speaks, Inc.

On-line Research for families through our Autism Research Registry; Genetics Studies in ASD; Phenotyping Studies in ASD; Prospective Identification and Treatment Study; Epidemiological Study of ASDs in Canada

Mission: to identify and provide evidenced based treatment to children with ASDs while preparing families and educational organizations and personnel with the specialized knowledge necessary to assist children with ASDs to reach their fullest potential.

This program, like so many devoted to understanding and treating autism, arose out of extreme need: the need for a nationwide system to increase the availability of brain tissue for autism research.

Our organizations are determined to understand autism spectrum disorders by providing approved scientists access to the most fundamental, rare, precious and most necessary of resources; human brain tissue.

This survey is intended to investigate how familiar family members of individuals with ASD are with treatment approaches used to treat ASD. In addition, factors that might affect acceptability of treatment approaches in general will be investigated.

Center for Research on Developmental Disorders, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, Waltham, MA

Centre for childhood disability research that seeks to maximize the life quality of children and youth with disabilities and their families. Formerly the Neurodevelopmental Clinical Research Unit.

The only form of treatment that has been empirically validated to be effective with this population is that based upon the behavioural model and these treatments are advancing in effectiveness and comprehensiveness at an impressive rate.

Dedicated to uncovering the brain bases and causes of autism. MRI studies of autism aim to identify the brain structures that are abnormal and to describe their deviant growth trajectories from late infancy through adulthood.

A case-control study of 2,000 children with differing patterns of development. These include children with autism, children with developmental delay or mental retardation but not autism, and typically developing children.

Mission: To offer children with autistic spectrum disorders and their families comprehensive evaluations and effective treatment plans from trained experts, and to create a research center offering state-of-the-art transdisciplinary clinical programming.

The aim of the study is to identify the gene or genes that contribute to the cause of autism by studying families who have two or more individuals diagnosed within the autism spectrum.

10 Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism (CPEAs) that conduct research to learn about the possible causes of autism, including genetic, immunological, and environmental factors.

The past 20 years have seen a surge in the number of children with autism but few corresponding funding increases to study the disorder. But thanks to an October 2003 grant, the Autism Birth Cohort, a joint project of Columbia University and the Norwegian government, is now one of the largest research studies on autism in history.

Details on current projects being conducted at autism research centers, including the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, Yale, McMaster, University of Pittsburgh, Cambridge, Mt. Sinai, Stanford, and others.

Groups of personality traits, ('withdrawn' 'difficult' and 'tense') aggregate in the family members of autistic individuals and some of them are probably a manifestation of the liability to autism.

Presently conducting two separate research studies of autism/PDD under the supervision of Dr. Peter Szatmari: an investigation of the genetic factors that may cause autism/PDD, and a long-term follow-up study of high functioning PDD children

Studying families including two or more children with autism, PDD, or Asperger Syndrome.

The objectives of the study were to describe the outcome of PDD children over time and to identify variables that predicted good outcome.

In their quest for answers, the Simonses aren't just another family seeking comfort. Audrey's father, top mathematician James H. Simons, runs Renaissance Technologies Corp., one of the world's most successful hedge funds. With little notice, the family's charitable foundation has committed $38 million to find the causes of autism. The money manager says he and his wife will spend $100 million more in what is rapidly becoming the largest private investment in the field. The Simonses' philanthropy is stirring up the small community of autism researchers and advocates. Using his scientific background, Mr. Simons, 67, personally reviews grant applications. When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology asked him for money for brain research, he demanded that the project focus on autism and include scientists he liked. He has provided his family's DNA for study, pitched in to help solve research problems and is pushing scientists to probe a genetically based explanation for the disease.

In December 2003, the UK's House of Commons Science & Technology Committee launched an inquiry into scientific publications to investigate pricing, access and availability issues.

The persistence of NIH and NIMH in focusing almost entirely upon a genetic-theory of autism means that a goodly amount of data continues to be ignored, shunted from view, and unfunded.

Promotes the welfare of children who are challenged by developmental, learning, and emotional disorders. Emphasizes intensive, empirically validated intervention procedures, within a clinical-educational framework utilizing the process of ABA.

An annual meeting of researchers, practitioners, and other interested parties.

A team of clinicians, laboratory researchers and statistical geneticists from several European countries and the U.S.A., established to investigate the genetic basis of autism and related disorders.

Kasetsart University Laboratory School (KUS) is an educational research and development center of the Faculty of Education, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Patient care programs for clients with neurological disorders and injury. More than 20 outpatient clinics, three inpatient programs and various home and community programs representing more than 14 disciplines. Specializes in fMRI.

Our multidisciplinary team of investigators includes people with a background in psycholinguistics, clinical psychology, psychiatry, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, special education, biology, and many other disciplines.

There is considerable uncertainty about the causes and prevalence of learning difficulties and autism in children. Two new studies hope to clarify the picture.

Current research in my lab focuses on both strengths and weaknesses of individuals with autism in the domains of verbal and nonverbal communication, imitation and praxis, verbal learning and memory, and executive functioning.

Autism may be many things to many people--a way of being, a way of relating, a sense of self, a sharing of culture, a strength, a challenge, a shield or a tool, a gift or an impediment. But one thing autism is not is a disease.

MIND = Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Secretin Study, Neuroimaging of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Study, Social Skills Training Program for High Functioning Autism, AS, or PDD-NOS.

We combine the disciplines of neuroscience, biology and psychology to study specific aspects of the brain and mind including: vision, movement systems, learning and memory, neural and cognitive development, language and reasoning.

Provides a picture of what scientific research has revealed about the occurrence and causes of autism and other autism spectrum disorders, identifies gaps in knowledge, and makes recommendations on future research strategy for the UK.

ncluding 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.

Devoted to funding and otherwise accelerating biomedical research in autism and related disorders.

NIWI aims at providing scientific information on the influence of digital networks and on the practice of science in multiple fields.

Since Chas was two, Gardner has dreamed of a sort of Manhattan Project for autism. He wanted to create a center that would cure the disorder -- quickly. And he wanted parents to be involved in running it.

Dramatic advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are opening new windows onto the structures and processes of brain disorders and enabling researchers to launch promising studies that may help unravel the mysteries of autism.

The goal of our research is to identify the biological, neurological and genetic basis of autism. Our hope is to help improve life today for all those who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and their families.

All the studies, involving scientists from various disciplines, use a common diagnosis and shared procedures, such as a standardized family history, that will allow data from the different groups to be compared in later genetic analyses.

Conceptual and pragmatic issues relevant to the study of persons with autism are addressed within the context of comparison groups and matching strategies. We argue that no choice of comparison group or matching strategy is perfect, but rather needs to be determined by specific research objectives and theoretical questions. Thus, strategies can differ between studies in which the goal is to delineate developmental profiles and those in which the focus is the study of a specific aspect of functioning. We promote the notion of a �mosaic,� rather than a �melting pot,� approach to science in which researchers communicate conservative and precise interpretations of empirical findings.

This paper identifies instruments and measures that may be appropriate for randomized clinical trials in participants with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The Clinical Global Impressions scale was recommended for all randomized clinical trials.

"In spite of the overall excellent level of understanding, it is remarkable that the only area where a substantial proportion of parents apparently showed a misunderstanding was that about treatment assignment being randomly determined," said the researchers. The parents' educational level may have had some influence on their responses, they said. Of the parents with a college degree, 83 percent knew that treatment was randomly assigned, compared with 60 percent of those without a college degree (p=0.01). "Failure to appreciate the experimental nature of therapeutic clinical trials may well be the most difficult aspect of clinical research for research participants to grasp," said the researchers.

Research in our lab has focused on studying face perception using behavioral methods (i.e., face recognition tests), as well as noninvasive brain techniques such as EEG recording and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

If you believe that you are prosopagnosic or have other types of recognition impairments and are interested in becoming involved with research, please contact us using our form.

The creation of workable mechanisms that allow appropriate risk-benefit judgments and that preserve respect for the autonomy of participating research subjects is challenging indeed.

NAAR's primary mission is to raise money for funding pilot grants for basic and clinical research in autism with the hope that these grants can be leveraged into greater funding from the National Institutes of Health.

The reemergence of a narrowly defined "scientifically based research" that marginalizes qualitative approaches represents a major threat to qualitative research. A postmodern perspective not only challenges this essentialist definition of "science" but also critiques tendencies of qualitative researchers to essentialize proponents of "science". These arguments raise the issue of dialogue across the differences between researchers working in different paradigms. Such dialogue can promote a better understanding of the value of qualitative research; it can also sensitize qualitative researchers to the importance of validity concerns and alternative interpretations in their work. Addressing the latter issue strengthens the argument that at least some qualitative research can be fully "scientific" without giving up the essential characteristics of qualitative inquiry.

These facilities and organizations are centers of or fundraisers for research into autistic spectrum disorders. Although they may carry out or fund studies of new treatments, they are generally not sources of ongoing medical care.

The mission is to help families offer a home based alternative to enable their children to realize their fullest potential. Parents and team members are conceptualized as co-therapists with an essential role in the education and development of the child.

Despite impressive gains over the past three decades in the development and evaluation of empirically supported psychotherapies, such treatments are not used widely by front-line practicing clinicians. In an attempt to address this science-practice gap, efforts have turned recently to constructing lists of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) and disseminating information about these treatments to professionals and the public. This effort has been met with criticism, however, by both practitioners, on one hand, and psychotherapy researchers on the other. The current procedures for identifying ESTs are critically reviewed, and recommendations are offered to improve the scientific viability of the process. It is argued that lists of ESTs are viewed most productively as one step toward the development of best practice guidelines.

Changes in scientific publishing are "necessary as a matter of urgency" and everyone should have free, open access to UK research findings... The report recommends that UK research funding bodies mandate free access to all their research findings.

Provides direct services, training and preparation of personnel, community training and technical assistance, information dissemination, and research to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and special health care needs and their families.

Offers integrated and comprehensive research and referral information, emotional support and related help. Current programs are designed to help families learn about the disorder, accept the diagnosis, create a home program and rebuild their lives.

Autism is part of a group of developmental disabilities caused by a brain abnormality and is characterized by repetitive behaviors, speech and language problems, and problems with social skills and communication. The condition generally manifests itself during childhood, and is a lifelong affliction. Our analysis of autism research over the past decade shows a wide variety of approaches, from epidemiology to genetic studies. Epidemiological studies, most notably the British twin study, have drawn the conclusion that autism is heterogeneous in origin. Autopsy analyses have examined the brain structure of autistic patients. Genome scan studies have sought to narrow down the responsible genes. One study in particular on our list focuses on the serotonin transporter gene as a culprit. Other papers in our top 20 list examine Theory of Mind testing, the value of behavioral intervention, the importance of the diagnostic interview, and the therapeutic potential of various drugs, including clomipramine, desipramine, and fluvoxamine.

We are looking for young men of normal intelligence 10-18 years of age with social understanding difficulties in the San Francisco and Bay Area and their families to participate in a genetic study.

In the current situation, patients, families, practitioners, health administrators, and policy makers are forced to make important clinical decisions without clear empirical data to guide these choices.

Affiliated with Children's Hospital San Diego and UCSD Neuroscience Department

University College London has a notable record of innovative research into autism and its related conditions (Autism Spectrum, AS hereafter) , and equally of theoretical contributions to understanding AS. John Morton headed a Medical Research Council Cognitive Development Unit (MRC/CDU) housed on the UCL campus in the last decades of the twentieth century where the work of Uta Frith and distinguished students and colleagues such as Simon Baron-Cohen, Francesca Happe, Rita Jordan, and Alan Leslie all flourished. These psychologists contributed to the development of two of the most influential proposals of what is sometimes referred to as �the core deficit� of the autistic condition.

Research involves understanding the origins of social, communicative, and language deficits demonstrated by individuals with autism; and focus on the design and testing of experimental treatment interventions.

This research program focuses on the experimental analysis and treatment of autism. The major emphasis has been on the development and evaluation of effective parent training interventions.

Recently, the new technologies of molecular biology and genetics have begun to be used to study autism. These, along with neuroimaging and perhaps immunology, could substantially extend our understanding of autism, and of social communication in general.

Dedicated to studying the molecular basis of pediatric onset neuropsychiatric disorders

Conducts multidisciplinary evaluations, with a particular emphasis on diagnosis and consultation; treatment and consultation in behavior management and educational programming; diagnostic instrument development; molecular and genetic research.

We are a community based program, which means our staff members travel to visit our constituents in their homes, schools or wherever assistance is needed. Because our program is funded by the Florida legislature, all of our services are free.

Some of our current projects include: genetic studies utilizing the unique genealogical resources available in Utah; studies of brain development in children with autism; and studies of the immune system in autism.