ARCH (Autism Risk and Maternal Cardiometabolic Health) is a national cohort, registry and multi-generation study. MFA investigators are using nation-wide health and sociodemographic data from Danish and Swedish registries to investigate cardiometabolic heath (obesity, diabetes, hypertension) and related genetic factors in families and their links to autism

PIs: Avi Reichenberg (Mt Sinai School of Medicine) and Diana Schendel (Drexel)

Project title: Autism Risk and Maternal Cardiometabolic Health (ARCH) Funding: NICHD R01HD098883

ATLAS of family history project is national cohort, registry and a multi-generation study. MRF researchers use nation-wide health registry data from Denmark to look at patterns of chronic medical conditions in the family across 3 generations and their links to autism. ATLAS also looks at patterns of these conditions that co-occur in autistic persons.

PI: Preben Bo Mortensen (Aarhus University, Denmark)

Project title: Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research (iPSYCH)

Funding: Lundbeck Foundation R102-A9118 and R155-2014-1724

EARLI is a family-based study. The EARLI study recruited families who had a child with autism and followed the pregnancy and early development of a younger sibling. Younger siblings of children with autism are at increased risk for developing autism themselves so EARLI is helping researchers study the risk factors and pathways to autism. MFA researchers use information collected in EARLI in multiple ongoing projects:

PI: Kristen Lyall (Drexel)

Project title: Maternal dietary patterns during pregnancy in association with autism related outcomes

Funding: Eagles Autism Challenge

PI: Kristen Lyall (Drexel)

Project title: Oxidative stress pathways and placental development in association with autism and neurodevelopment

Funding: NIH R21 HD096356-01

PIs: Kristen Lyall (Drexel) and Heather Volk (JHU)

Project title: Examining dietary modifiers of associations between air pollution and autism-related outcomes in two cohorts

Funding: NIEHS R01ES032469

PI: Craig Newschaffer (Drexel/Penn State); site PI: Kristen Lyall (Drexel)

Project title: Prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting chemical mixtures and ASD risk

Funding: NIH R01ES026903

PI: Danielle Fallin (Hopkins/Emory); site PI: Kristen Lyall (Drexel)

Project title: Expanding the value of the EARLI study: Small cohort with big data

Funding: NIH R24ES030893

ECHO stands for Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes and is a national US consortia study of multiple child health outcomes. ECHO includes over 60 studies in the US with information on children and their families to learn more about how environmental factors relate to child development and health. More information on ECHO can be found here: https://echochildren.org/. MFA researchers are collecting new information on participating families and are studying many research questions using ECHO data, including measurement methods for autism-related traits, links between maternal diet during pregnancy and autism traits in her child, and between exposure during gestation to metals and chemicals and neurodevelopment in the child.

The Maternal Health in Pregnancy and Autism Risk study is a health record study using information from Denmark registries and Kaiser Permanente HMO health records in the United States to look at all possible combinations of maternal conditions around pregnancy that are linked to autism. The goal is to see how genetic, family and non-genetic factors link maternal health conditions to autism in the child. Using information from different countries helps to see if health patterns are different between them which are also clues as to what causes the link between maternal health and autism.

PI: Magda Janecka (Mt Sinai School of Medicine; Denmark site PI: Diana Schendel, (Drexel and Aarhus University)

Project title: Maternal health in pregnancy and autism risk-genetic and non-genetic mechanisms

Funding: NIMH R01MH124817

MINERvA (Multigenerational Familial and Environmental Risk for Autism) is a multi-generation study and a national cohort, registry study. It uses data from nation-wide registries of different countries with information from multiple generations in order to look at factors linked to autism that might occur across generations, e.g., obesity, diabetes or age at childbirth.

PI: Avi Reichenberg (Mt Sinai School of Medicine); Co-Director and Denmark site PI: Diana Schendel (Drexel and Aarhus University)

Project Title: Multigenerational Familial and Environmental Risk for Autism (MINERvA)

Network Funder: NIH U01 HD073978

PANDa (Pollution and Neurodevelopment in Denmark) is a national cohort, registry study using Danish registry data to study the links between autism and ADHD and air pollution exposure both before and after birth. It will also look at how genetic factors may influence the link between air pollution, autism or ADHD.

PIs: Amy Kalkbrenner (Univ Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Diana Schendel (Drexel and Aarhus University)

Project Title: Air-pollution risk for Autism and ADHD - cross-disorder insights and genetic liability

Funder: NIEHS R01 ES026993