Autism Soccer: What’s Autism Speaks Last Scientific Research Agenda?

What does the future of autism look like?

One of the most renowned organizations on autism research and advocacy, Autism Speaks, published on December its new scientific research agenda for 2018-2022.

The latest report’s aimed to define their funding efforts and goals to support and improve the lives of autistic individuals and develop a more personalized approach to therapies and treatments for people living on the autism spectrum. Just like they announced a year before, they dropped the goal to find a “cure” for the disorder and are instead concentrating their research to “enhance lives today and accelerate a spectrum of solutions for tomorrow.”

The three-year strategic plan is looking to deepen its research on unraveling the biology of autism, including its subtypes and dimensions, and translating their findings into practical solutions. To do this, they’ve developed seven objectives to follow on a two-pronged approach. The first one is dedicated to the need of accessing to effective behavioral therapy and adult services for autistic individuals and families, with the purpose of improving healthcare.

The second one includes the efforts of delivering “personalized, life-enhancing solutions for each person on the autism spectrum.” They’re building an open-access database (called MSSNG) with more than 7,200 fully sequenced genomes for people with autism and their families. Its goal is to help therapists and caretakers understand the many causes and types of autism behind every individual’s condition.

Based on these two goals, the seven objectives established by the new agenda go as follows:

Support research that uncovers the biology of autism to advance the delivery of personalized therapies and supports.
Support research that translates fundamental discoveries into potential personalized treatments ready for clinical testing.

Facilitate the clinical testing of promising life-enhancing interventions, including scalable and sustainable community programs.
Improve the measurement of autism and its associated features to enhance screening, diagnosis, subgroup identification and the tracking of change during clinical trials and across the lifespan.
Promote consensus building in research and the widespread use of life-enhancing research findings by facilitating engagement among leaders in research, clinical practice and the autism community.
Continually review research areas, and Autism Speaks science activities, to identify those ripe for culmination or transition to other funding sources in order to ensure that new funding areas complement rather than duplicate those supported by other funders.
Broadly and effectively communicate the strategic science plan and ongoing progress against its goals, with emphasis on engagement with the autism community.

If you want to know more about Autism Speaks’ research, take a look at the plan itself to find the strategies with which these objectives are set to be accomplished. To create this new agenda, the organization asked for input to more than 6,000 people related to autism in one way or another (families, researchers, among others). At Autism Soccer, we support every effort from scientists to improve the lives of those we love, especially children!