The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) is pleased to announce that it intends to fund four grants in response to the Analysis of postmortem brain tissue from the Autism BrainNet collection request for applications (RFA). Investigators awarded through this RFA will use human postmortem brain tissue donated to Autism BrainNet to conduct studies that will advance the understanding of the biological mechanisms of autism.

Autism BrainNet has partnered with the New York Genome Center to genetically characterize all the brain tissue donated by people with autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions. These data will be made available to approved researchers worldwide to conduct studies that can help better understand the biological basis of autism.

We recently spoke with Annie Scheumbauer, mother of donor Bridget M. McCallister. Annie recounts Bridget’s life, her passions and challenges, and what led her family to make the decision to support autism research through the gift of brain donation.