Researchers to Create Autism Databank

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Scientists at the University of Michigan and 10 other universities will use an initial $10 million gift from a New York-based charitable organization to create a databank of DNA samples from 3,000 autism patients that they hope will identify different kinds of autism and develop treatments.

Catherine Lord, director of the Ann Arbor university’s Autism and Communication Disorders Center, will lead the effort, which should be completed in three years. The project will receive the two-year gift from the Simons Foundation, a philanthropic group that aims to spend $100 million long-term to find a cure for the developmental disorder that affects one in 200 children.

"The Simons Foundation is hopeful the genetics will be just the beginning of a huge initiative," Lord told The Ann Arbor News for a story Tuesday.

Children and adults with autism suffer from a lack of normal brain development in areas linked to social interaction and communication, but scientists don’t know how many subtypes may exist, Lord said. She said the gene data could help identify those types and treat newborns, similar to the way phenylketonuria, or PKU, a genetic disorder that can cause mental retardation, is detected and treated today.

DNA samples for the databank will be collected from autism patients by scientists at Yale University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Emory University, McGill University, Boston University, Washington University, the University of Washington, the University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Information from: The Ann Arbor News, http://www.mlive.com/aanews