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September 26, 2025<\/p>\n
4 min read<\/p>\n
NIH Funds New Autism Studies on Genes and Environment as Trump Focuses on Tylenol<\/p>\n
The National Institutes of Health is investing $50 million into research on genetic and environmental factors underlying autism\u2014news that was eclipsed by President Donald Trump\u2019s recent controversial claims about acetaminophen<\/p>\n
Confocal light micrograph of a synaptic conjugation between three dimensional (3D) human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived brain organoids grown on an organ-on-chip (OOC) system. An OOC is a multi-channel 3D microfluidic cell culture. Organoids are miniature, simplified versions of organs grown in the laboratory. These organoids are being grown to study neural tube formation and neuronal development.<\/p>\n
Arthur Chien\/Science Source<\/p>\n
Scientists moved a step closer to understanding the complex causes of autism this week. Although all of the headlines went to US President Donald Trump\u2019s poorly evidenced statements that the painkiller acetaminophen is linked to the neurodevelopmental condition, his White House autism event brought welcome \u2014 and largely overlooked \u2014 news to scientists: the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is investing US$50 million in an unusual autism-research effort.<\/p>\n
Trump and Jayanta Bhattacharya, director of the NIH, announced on 22 September that 13 research groups will receive funding under the Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI), a Trump administration programme to fund studies that explore how interacting genetic and environmental factors contribute to autism. \u201cThis is where the field needs to be going in searching for the complex causes of autism,\u201d says Helen Tager-Flusberg, who studies autism at Boston University, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
The funded projects range from studies on environmental exposures during pregnancy to experiments on brain cells. Funding was also awarded to efforts to replicate the projects\u2019 results and so ensure that they are robust.<\/p>\n
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Researchers, although pleased by the aims of the funded work and the rigour of the methods, have some concerns about the project. Several ADSI-funding recipients say that they are expected to complete their projects relatively quickly \u2014 within three years instead of the usual five \u2014 and some say that they are alert to political interference with their results. Trump prompted fierce pushback from scientists with his statements about acetaminophen earlier this week, given the lack of convincing evidence to support a link with autism. \u201cWe should wait until the research happens before announcing an answer,\u201d says Jason Stein, a neuroscientist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who received an ADSI grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not political interference, but rather a bold, science-driven effort to deliver meaningful answers more quickly,\u201d said a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HSS), which oversees the NIH.<\/p>\n
The NIH announced the ADSI in May and invited researchers to submit grant applications for research into the causes of autism, its growing prevalence and potential interventions. Some researchers expressed concern that applicants had only a month to submit proposals \u2014 much less time than usual \u2014 and it was unclear who was reviewing the grants and with what criteria. Some worried that the funding would be channelled to researching the discredited idea promoted by Trump\u2019s health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr that vaccines are linked to autism. \u201cSome people thought: maybe we should steer clear of this,\u201d says Judith Miller, a psychologist who studies autism at the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
In the end, nearly 250 research teams applied, and no awards were granted to projects that focus explictly on autism and vaccines.<\/p>\n
Several of the projects will involve exposomics: the study of the array of environmental factors to which a person is exposed. Miller is leading a three-year, $4.3-million project combining genome and exposome data to seek factors associated with autism. The project will draw on previously collected data on more than 100,000 children, including about 4,000 autistic children, and connect those to maternal-health records. The research team plans to use information on where participants live to add in data on air quality, access to green spaces and other environmental markers. \u201cWe haven\u2019t been able to bring this type of data all together in a clinical population,\u201d before, Miller says.<\/p>\n
Stein and his team, by contrast, are examining autism using brain organoids grown from the stem cells of autistic and non-autistic children. The researchers plan to expose the tissue to substances that epidemiological studies have linked to autism \u2014 such as valproic acid, a drug used to treat epilepsy \u2014 and examine how this affects gene activity.<\/p>\n
The team expects to be asked by the NIH to look at acetaminophen or other substances too, says Joseph Piven, a psychiatrist at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who is also working on the organoid project. \u201cAs long as they have some detectable level of epidemiological evidence, I think that\u2019s a valid question to go forward,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The ADSI is building in replication efforts from the start. Judy Zhong, a population-health scientist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, has received around $5 million from the ADSI for a centre that will require other ADSI-funded investigators to hand over their computer models so that their results can be independently replicated. \u201cIt is very unusual,\u201d Zhong says.<\/p>\n
But researchers are still worried about political interference in autism research. Some point to the announcement earlier this month that the HHS would award a contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, to search for an association between vaccines and autism in databases. \u201cIs this the best use of funds to support another investigation, on what appears to be a largely settled question?\u201d says Craig Newschaffer, an autism researcher at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.<\/p>\n
Some researchers would like to see more funding for research that helps autistic people to lead healthy and fulfilling lives \u2014 a primary focus of only 2 of the 13 ADSI grants. Katharine Zuckerman, a paediatrician at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, will be using her $4.25-million grant to look for factors in childrens\u2019 lives \u2014 such as regular doctor\u2019s visits or attending quality schools \u2014 that correlate with outcomes that autistic people say are important to them, such as sleep or good mental health. Like the other ADSI projects, this will be done in consultation with the autism community.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at the cause of autism is important, but I think that it\u2019s also important that we address the concerns of autistic people who are here today and what we could do to improve their lives,\u201d Zuckerman says.<\/p>\n
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on September 26, 2025.<\/p>\n
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