Maternal COVID-19 As a Potential Risk for Autism: Supplemental Funding for Ongoing Pregnancy Cohorts — Request for Applications

This grant program provided supplemental funding for ongoing pregnancy cohorts recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance biospecimen collection and extend post-natal family tracking. The program aimed to create cohorts and biospecimen collections that could be leveraged in future research to understand the effects of gestational infection and inflammation on autism risk in children. SFARI offered this funding because many existing cohorts collected maternal blood at only one or two timepoints and almost none collected stool specimens. A majority of cohorts also lacked child follow-up beyond a few months of age. The program specifically supported the collection of maternal blood for peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and cytokine assays, cord blood at birth, and ideally maternal stool specimens at multiple timepoints. Awards were intended to complement existing biospecimen collection with tracking of families after delivery to determine child neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 2-3 years.