Autism Speaks 2019 grant awards

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Funding will go to projects including transition to adulthood and genetics, as well as predoctoral and postdoctoral research fellowships across a range of scientific disciplines.

Transition to adulthood, a growing challenge in the autism community as at least 50,000 children diagnosed with autism age out of pediatric health care and services each year, will receive the largest amount of funding at nearly $2.6 million.

Funded projects on transition include health care models for transitioning primary care, employment support programs and ways to measure outcomes in adults with autism.

Of four funded projects in genetics, two will look for new genes that are linked to increased autism risk, while two more will study how known genes are linked to sleep problems and repetitive behaviors.

Ten predoctoral and eight postdoctoral fellowships were also awarded to doctoral students or recent doctoral graduates studying autism.

Nia Teerikorpi, of the University of California, San Francisco, was awarded a Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowship, funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to transform the future of autism research by launching the careers of highly promising graduate students in the field.

Fellowship projects include effects of cannabinoids on behavior and inflammation; education of children with autism in low-resource settings; and immune system regulation and gene expression in autis