Over the last five days, hundreds of scientists have stopped by the Autism Speaks booth at Neuroscience 2014 to discuss their research interests and inquire about funding opportunities. As the annual meeting for the international Society for Neuroscience, the conference draws more than 30,000 attendees each year.
“Besides those seeing if their research interests align with ours, many people stop by to say that someone in their family is affected by autism or works with those affected by autism and express appreciation for what we’re doing,” says Ed Clayton, Autism Speaks senior director for strategic funding and grants administration.
As the world’s largest funder of autism research fellowships, Autism Speaks draws particular interest from graduate and postdoctoral students and their mentors.
Several current Autism Speaks research fellows joined its science staff in talking with visitors at this year’s Neuroscience conference booth.
“I’m glad to share with them the wonderful opportunities that my Autism Speaks fellowship opened up for me,” says Meixner Postdoctoral Fellow Rebecca Jones (shown at right). Dr. Jones is conducting research into a new method for identifying crucial learning differences among young children with autism under the mentorship of psychologist Catherine Lord at Weill Cornell Medical College. A pioneer in autism research, Dr. Lord is the founding director of the medical college’s Center for Autism and the Developing Brain.
Unmatched opportunities for autism-research fellowships
Over the last four years, Autism Speaks has funded more than thirty Meixner Postdoctoral Fellowships in Translational Research. This program pairs highly promising scientists early in their research careers with mentors who stand out as leaders in a diversity of autism-related fields. This includes the fields of brain development, function and immunology and the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities. All Meixner research projects connect basic “laboratory” research with clinical, or patient-centered, studies.
Read about other funded Meixner Translational Fellowship projects here.
Learn more about applying to become a Meixner fellow here.
Through its Dennis Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowships, Autism Speaks has also invested in the career-launching projects of more than fifty highly promising graduate students, including many young autism therapists and medical students.
Read about funded Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowship projects here.
Learn more about applying to become a Weatherstone Predoctoral fellow here.
Autism Speaks Trailblazer Awards
In addition to its fellowships, the Autism Speaks Suzanne and Bob Wright Trailblazer Award draws tremendous interest at the Society for Neuroscience conference each year. The award supports highly novel “outside the box” research projects that have the potential to transform the lives of those affected by autism.
Read more about funded Autism Speaks Trailblazer projects here.
Learn more about applying for a Suzanne and Bob Wright Trailblazer award here.
MSSNG: Changing the future of autism with open science
This year, the Autism Speaks science staff introduced Neuroscience attendees to the organization’s newest and most ambitious research project. MSSNG is an unprecedented collaboration between Autism Speaks and Google to sequence and make freely available for research the anonymous genomes of 10,000 individuals affected by autism. Under the theme of “changing the future of autism through open science,” MSSNG invites the world’s scientists to use this resource to find the missing answers to what causes autism and how future treatments can be tailored to the needs of each child or adult affected by the disorder.