SFARI 2023 Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science RFA: Informational session

On March 7, 2023, SFARI held an informational session about the 2022 Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science request for applications (RFA)

About the Session

The 2023 Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science RFA opened on February 28, 2023. This RFA aims to support the unique opportunities and challenges inherent to studies that directly involve participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

This RFA prioritizes research that produces foundational knowledge about the neurobehavioral differences associated with ASD. Many of these projects are expected to inform or relate to the development and refinement of tools needed for translational efforts, such as biomarkers and outcome measures. Special emphasis is placed on objective, quantitative measures that may be used in conjunction with standardized clinical measures and genomic information to better triangulate phenotypic and neurobiological variability within and across individuals with ASD.

Members of the SFARI science team, including Pamela Feliciano, LeeAnne Green Snyder, Kelsey Martin and Paul Wang, held an informational session to answer questions about this new RFA.

About the Speakers

Pamela Feliciano is scientific director of SPARK and a senior scientist at SFARI. She oversees the recruitment and retention of participants in SPARK as well as the research priorities of the program. She also oversees several autism genetics and clinical grants in SFARI’s portfolio, with a particular emphasis on the development of objective, quantitative methods of measuring clinically relevant autism behaviors.

LeeAnne Green Snyder is a clinical research scientist at SFARI. She advises on protocol design, outcome measures and database needs for SFARI’s research cohorts of individuals with autism, including SPARK, the Simons Simplex Collection and Simons Searchlight.

Kelsey Martin joined the Simons Foundation in September 2021 and is the executive vice president of SFARI and the Simons Foundation Neuroscience Collaborations. She previously served as dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), chair of the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry and professor in the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Her research addresses the cellular and molecular biology of long-term synaptic plasticity and memory, with a focus on experience-dependent regulation of gene expression in neurons. Her lab has discovered signaling molecules that travel from stimulated synapses to the nucleus to impact transcription. They have also elucidated functions for the translation of synaptically localized mRNAs during synapse formation and plasticity. As dean at UCLA, Martin established programs in precision health and computational medicine and developed a series of interdepartmental research initiatives spanning basic through clinical research.

Paul Wang is director, Clinical Research Associates and Senior Clinical Research Scientist, SFARI. His responsibilities focus on the development of arbaclofen for clinical use in ASD. He also helps support other Simons Foundation research initiatives, especially those with clinical facets.

Questions? Email: [email protected]