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Research Hubs

ARIA supports two major Research Hub classifications: the Frontier Clinical Hub and Frontier Science Hubs, all with the goal of creating a coordinated, collaborative, and innovative environment that drives research progress and accelerates improvements in clinical care. Each classification consists of Hubs that are focused on specific themes. While these themes are specific, they are not siloed. Hubs share findings and generated resources, including data, code, protocols, and lab materials, so that the ARIA community can build upon these advancements.

ARIA Research Ecosystem

Frontier Clinical Hub

The Frontier Clinical Hub, which includes the IMPACT Network, will comprise international sites collaborating to accelerate clinical trial readiness and therapeutic development for autism and related NDDs. It will integrate expert clinical care, clinical research, and patient-family partnerships to create a coordinated and standardized research infrastructure that bridges the gap between discovery and translation.

IMPACT Network

The Innovative Medicine and Precision Approaches to Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Network, part of the Frontier Clinical Hub, is a robust and collaborative international network of sites designed to accelerate clinical trial readiness and clinical trial implementation for syndromic and non-syndromic forms of autism.

Frontier Science Hubs

The Frontier Science Hubs support bold, cross-disciplinary research designed to reshape the field and inform translational and clinical research. Promising discoveries emerging from these science hubs will feed into the IMPACT Network for testing and scaling. We are funding projects across five themes with the greatest potential for creating therapeutic opportunities for autistic people and people with related neurodevelopmental conditions.

Genetic Medicines

  • Streamline gene-specific learnings across more than 200 genes linked to autism, and advance these learnings into actionable medicine. 
  • Develop key partnerships with monogenic disorder foundations focused on autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions. 
  • Establish a gene-specific research and development ecosystem for clinical trials.

Protein-Protein Interactions

  • Uncover and target protein interactions associated with genes implicated in autism, and identify possibilities for new therapies.
  • Share key biosamples across other Frontier Hubs to build datasets and align efforts to translate discoveries into therapies.

Human Developmental Neurobiology

  • Explore how brain development from before birth through adolescence affects the onset and symptoms of autism, and how individuals respond to treatment.
  • Guide the development of new therapies that target key stages of brain growth and change.

Neurosensing and Neuromodulation

  • Develop therapeutic strategies for targeting the circuits that control behavior and communication to address core autism symptoms, using data from patients requiring neurosurgery. 
  • Create computer models to understand how brain activity supports communication and behavior, using open datasets to improve accuracy and uncover new insights.

Functional Communication

  • Design a cutting-edge research and incubator program that advances our understanding of functional language and communication processes in autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions. 
  • Identify key research goals to improve quantitative human phenotyping and develop better biomarkers for health and behavior.