Cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget affect both investigators who have existing grants — which will receive one percent less than in 2010 — and those applying for funding.

Autism advocacy backed by science has fueled significant social change as an emphasis on the higher-functioning end of the spectrum lessens the stigma of the diagnosis.

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee has released an updated list of priorities for government-funded autism research.

As autism rates rise, so do health care costs for the disorder. Despite federal programs, some children with autism are falling through the cracks in the health care system.

The National Database for Autism Research (NDAR), created by the National Institutes of Health to ease data sharing among autism researchers, has released the first batch of data on more than 10,000 participants enrolled in federally funded autism research studies.

Sharing stories about his own family’s struggles with neurological disease, Patrick J. Kennedy, a Democratic Congressman, on Monday called for a focused national program to uncover the causes and treatments for brain disorders. The challenge today, he told SFARI, is to devote enough resources for research on disorders such as autism.

The U.S. government last week announced a $1 million multi-agency initiative that will evaluate how many new ideas, jobs and medical advances have been generated by its investment into scientific research.

Chromosomal microarray analysis, which screens the entire genome for tiny blips in the sequence, should be the first genetic test performed when diagnosing autism, says a consortium of clinical geneticists. The recommendation comes on the heels of a study that found the test is three times more effective at spotting autism variants than are standard clinical methods.

Writing in Science, leading scientists call for a 10-year, $2 billion international scheme that would combine the latest in genetics and animal research to combat psychiatric diseases.

Two high-profile autism researchers have been accused of fraud.