The Autism Science Foundation today announced the recipients of its annual undergraduate summer research grants. Four grants have been awarded to promising undergraduates who will study autism risk genes in zebrafish and fruit flies, investigate the relationship between autism and ADHD, and study the effect of maternal infection during pregnancy on autism risk genes. These projects allow undergraduate researchers to contribute to scientifically important projects while gaining skills that will allow them to flourish as future autism researchers.

Congratulations to Nathan Bliss (Texas A&M), Kristen Enriquez (Yale), Emma McQueen (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Nicholas Page (Rutgers). Nathan will conduct his research at Baylor College of Medicine and Nicholas will be working at UCLA.

 

"Encouraging promising, young scientists to focus on autism is at the heart of what we do" said Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation. "This group of grantees is doing important and innovative research that will expand our knowledge of the causes of autism and help develop targeted new treatments that will improve the lives of people with autism."

 

In 2018, Inside Philanthropy praised ASF's focus on young scientists, writing that funding undergraduates "is not something we see very often. In fact, we almost never see it. A key to achieving (medical) breakthroughs is first to win the battle to engage and retain young investigators. That means getting to promising researchers early."