NIH grant to fund autism research center

Investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell's Ithaca campus have received a three-year, $5.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI) to launch the Autism Replication, Validation, and Reproducibility (AR²) Center. The center aims to improve the reliability of autism research and foster public trust in the field.

"The AR2 Center will serve as a scientific quality control hub for the ADSI teams and projects," said the principal investigator, Judy Zhong, chief of the Division of Biostatistics in the Department of Population Health Sciencesand director of the Data Coordinating Centerat Weill Cornell Medicine.

AR2 is one of 13 projects funded by the $50 million ADSI research effort to assess the roles of genetics, environmental interactions and other factors in autism. The project will be led by Zhong; Dr. Rainu Kaushal, senior associate dean of health data science at Weill Cornell Medicine and chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center; and Dr. Conor Liston, M.D. '08, professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine.

AR2 will use existing data from previous research, Medicaid claims and other data repositories, including the INSIGHT Clinical Research Network, led by Kaushal, and PCORnet, to support its analysis of the validity and generalizability of ADSI results.

Zhong and her colleagues will use a three-step process that starts with replicating the data analysis to confirm the initial results reported by ADSI investigators. Then, they will validate that the investigators' models work in different subsets of patients or in patients identified using different diagnostic tools. Finally, they will ensure that other scientists can reproduce the findings by providing adequate documentation and transparency.

A community advisory board including policymakers, researchers and parents of children with autism will meet with the AR2 leaders every six months to advise them and help ensure that the projects address the needs of patients and their families.

"We hope to build and ensure trust in ADSI's research," Zhong said. "We want patients and their families to be heard. We hope to serve as a bridge so that the patient community and policy makers can understand the science."

The AR2 Center will leverage the advanced computing infrastructure and replication expertise of the Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS)Data and Reproduction Archive at the Ithaca campus. The CCSS will help replicate ADSI project results, facilitate data sharing among investigators, collaboratively establish best practices for ADSI projects and host training workshops for ADSI teams, according to co-investigator Peter Enns, the Robert S. Harrison Director of CCSS and a professor in the Department of Governmentin the College of Arts and Sciencesand the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.

"Everyone wants reproducible research," Enns said. "We view ourselves as independent evaluators collaborating with ADSI teams to reach that goal."

Florio Arguillas, a research associate at CCSS, will lead the replication work and, when appropriate, train students to assist, ultimately helping to educate the next generation of scientists in best practices.

"It's an amazing opportunity for students because they're analyzing the data, looking at the code, and confirming that it reproduces," Enns said.

The center will also benefit from the expertise of the Data Coordinating Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, which leads real-world data studies and supports clinical trials funded by academia, government and industry.

Zhong said she hopes the three-year project will be just the start of the team's work improving reproducibility in science more broadly. Enns agreed, noting that the cross-campus collaboration is a good model for other areas of research to follow.

"We believe it is our responsibility to build on our experience and expertise to enhance trust in scientific research in general," Zhong said. "We feel that at this time rigorous, trustworthy, reproducible science and transparent communication of scientific findings are more important than ever."

Bridget Kuehn is a freelance writer for Weill Cornell Medicine.