Environmental Contributors to Autism Spectrum Disorders (R21)

Submission Date: August 26, 2014

Award Ceiling: $200,000

The purpose of this FOA is to stimulate and foster research to (1) identify environmental contributors to risk and expression of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and (2) understand how environmental factors impact the underlying biologic processes implicated in ASD. The R21 grant mechanism is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects. These studies may involve considerable risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact on biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research. A range of approaches are being encouraged by this FOA, from basic mechanistic studies using in vitro and in vivo model systems to studies that add new data collection activities and/or make use of extant data or biospecimens in existing human studies. Studies that address hypotheses related to the joint contribution of genes and environment are of particular interest. It is anticipated that knowledge gained from the research supported by this FOA will be used to inform public health prevention and intervention strategies.

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