Dr. Sara Jane Webb Awarded Grant up to $17.25M to Advance Autism Research
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Summary
- Seattle Children’s has been awarded a grant of up to $17.25 million from Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) to join the international IMPACT Network.
- Sara Jane Webb, PhD, principal investigator at the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, will lead the initiative at Seattle Children’s.
- Seattle Children’s is one of an initial 12 sites to be selected for this international network that aims to accelerate clinical trial readiness and development of therapeutic opportunities for children with profound autism — a group often underrepresented in traditional research.
Congratulations to Sara Jane Webb, PhD, who has been selected by the Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) initiative to join the Innovative Medicine and Precision Approaches to Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Network. This five-year grant, which provides up to $17.25 million in funding, will accelerate clinical trial readiness and research for children with profound autism spectrum disorder and related genetic syndromes.
Seattle Children’s is one of an initial 12 sites to be selected for this international network, which aims to accelerate the process of developing clinical trials for emerging therapeutics that could be used for children with profound autism — a group often underrepresented in traditional research.
“Children with profound autism — those with intellectual disability or who are minimally verbal — are an underresearched group with few targeted treatments,” Dr. Webb said. "Currently, we lack the tools to predict individual outcomes or determine how these children will transition into adolescence and adulthood. This funding is a critical step toward closing that gap."
Two Decades of Leadership
Seattle Children’s has been a leader in autism research for the past 20 years, working with children, adolescents and adults across the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Webb and her colleagues have led NIH-funded research focused on biomarker innovation (e.g., EEG and eye tracking), acquisition and analytics for autism research. For example, the team is reaching the final phase of a previously funded, 10-year effort to develop clinical trial and biomarker infrastructure for children with autism who are verbal.
This proven track record showcases the capabilities that Seattle Children’s brings to the IMPACT Network. The grant will enable Dr. Webb’s team to expand their research to a new patient population: children with profound autism and related genetic syndromes. By joining the IMPACT Network, the team will contribute to a long-term natural history study, the ARIA IMPACT-Ready Study, which aims to better understand how autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions develop and change over time.
Bridging the Gap for Families
Beyond the laboratory, this study prioritizes the inclusion of children and youth with profound autism and related conditions who have historically been underrepresented in autism research and therapeutic development.
Advancing Clinical Trial Readiness
Data from this project aims to directly influence the development of future clinical trials, from establishing enrollment criteria to determining exactly what information can be reliably validated. This information will provide researchers with a foundational picture of how autism develops over time, essential data for identifying the measurements that can help inform future clinical trials that study new potential therapies.
“Through the IMPACT Network, our long-term vision is to increase attention to the needs of autistic youth and specifically gain a better understanding of development that guides treatment delivery and support services,” Dr. Webb said. “We hope that this research infrastructure will bring attention to this subpopulation of autistic youth.”
ARIA is an initiative to accelerate scientific discovery and create more therapeutic opportunities for people with profound autism and people on the spectrum who seek additional support. ARIA connects emerging research, insights and promising technologies from across scientific fields to build an integrated ecosystem that bridges clinical and translational research. Learn more about ARIA.
— Empress Rivera-Ruiz