NIH supports multi-year, multi-site research project on autism biomarkers

The NIH recently announced its involvement in a privately and publicly funded multi-year project to develop and improve clinical research tools for autism spectrum disorder.

During the next 4 years, the project will receive a total of $28 million to enhance clinical measures of social impairment associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in an effort to improve behavioral evaluations and drug therapies.

In addition to the NIH, supporters include the Foundation for the NIH, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Institute and others.

The project is the latest addition to a number of efforts supported by the Biomarkers Consortium.

James McPartland, PhD, of Yale School of Medicine, will be the principal investigator of the ASD project. McPartland and colleagues will conduct a multi-site study among children aged 3 to 5 years and 6 to 11 years with and without ASD.

Researchers will compare commonly used lab-based measures of social impairment domains and standardized clinician and caregiver assessments of social functioning and assess how these measures indicate changes in a patient’s social impairment symptoms over time.

Thomas R. Insel

Researchers will also evaluate the potential of eye tracking responses and brain activity measures via electroencephalogram as biomarkers for future clinical trials.

The project will include blood samples from study participants and their parents intended for use in future genetic studies.

“The heterogeneity in people with an ASD makes it imperative that we find more precisely diagnosed groups of research subjects so that we can objectively evaluate the clinical effects of an intervention,” Thomas R. Insel, MD, NIMH Director, said in a press release. “This consortium project will develop reliable tools and measures that clinical researchers can use to assess potential treatments.”