Government, non-profit, and other private partners will fund a multi-year project to develop and improve clinical research tools for studying autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The project will receive a total of $28 million over the next four years to test and refine clinical measures of social impairment in ASD in order to better evaluate potential behavioral and drug therapies. It is supported by the NIH, the Foundation for the NIH, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, and others. NIH funding comes from the NIMH, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and NICHD. The effort is the latest addition to the prestigious list of projects supported by the Biomarkers Consortium, a large public-private partnership that aims to accelerate biomedical research progress. The Consortium supports research to identify disease-specific biomarkers, and develop targeted technologies and treatments. Its ultimate goal is precision medicine — an emerging approach to prevention and treatment that takes into account an individual’s disease-related variations in genes, environment, and lifestyle.
Press Release: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jul2015/nimh-20.htm