Experts from the Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS) Center at Georgia State University will play a key role in the largest study ever conducted to investigate the causes of profound autism in children and develop possible treatments.
The research project is funded with a $21.9 million grant from the late Bernie Marcus and The Marcus Foundation to the Marcus Autism Center, a subsidiary of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
The five-year study will include 7,500 children from birth to age 12, following them before symptoms appear and throughout their treatment.
The project will help researchers learn more about autism in children by looking at patterns in development, behavior, brain activity and genetics. The aim is to better understand why autism affects some children more severely than others and to find more effective therapies, especially for children with the most serious forms of autism.
The study brings together experts from the Children's Behavioral and Mental Health and Neurosciences Research programs, the Emory University School of Medicine's Department of Human Genetics, and the tri-institutional TReNDS Center at Georgia State.
Vince Calhoun is a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, founding director of the TReNDS Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Brain Health and Image Analysis. He will direct the project's NeuroBridge AI Core, which integrates brain imaging and behavior and biological data to better understand autism development and treatment response.
"This research will take a pragmatic, real-world approach - embedding procedures directly into everyday clinical practice and enrolling a broad range of patients without excluding key groups - so that the predictors we identify are truly actionable where care decisions actually happen," Calhoun said.
The research team is led by Ami Klin, director of the Marcus Autism Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. The work will explore profound autism from several angles with the goal of developing new treatments and improving quality of life.
"The goal is to enable precision medicine interventions that will accelerate learning, make symptoms less severe and improve response to treatment in children with profound autism, and possibly even prevent profound disability from emerging in the first place," Klin said.
Spearheading the NeuroBridge AI Core
The TReNDS Center, a collaboration among Georgia State, Emory University and Georgia Tech, will head the NeuroBridge AI Core (NAIC). The NAIC will serve as a bridge between Marcus' pediatric neuroimaging and neurophysiology expertise and TReNDS' strengths in informatics, and builds on an existing partnership with the Marcus Autism Center.
The core will function as the project's central artificial intelligence and data integration engine, combining large-scale clinical observations with advanced neuroimaging and behavioral and genomic data to identify biological pathways and predictors of treatment response.
"We're honored to help lead the NAIC. This is a rare chance to pair real-world clinical care with state-of-the-art brain, behavioral and omics measures at unprecedented scale, and to turn those data into actionable predictors that can improve outcomes for children with profound autism and their families," Calhoun said.
Calhoun will lead a team focused on two key drivers of this work: advanced tools that capture detailed, real-world data, and powerful AI and neuroinformatics methods that analyze this complex information to identify biomarkers and improve predictive accuracy. These efforts will leverage scalable computing and multimodal data fusion approaches to model developmental trajectories and generate individualized brain-health profiles that may help guide clinical decision-making.
"We're proud to see our researchers contributing to this work alongside such respected partners," said Donald Hamelberg (Ph.D. '01), vice president for Research and Economic Development at Georgia State. "This kind of collaboration moves us closer to real, meaningful impact in our communities."
Children with profound autism encounter major challenges, such as severe intellectual disabilities and little to no ability to speak. They can struggle with everyday tasks and often need constant care and assistance.
Autism spectrum disorder affects more than 2.3 million children in the U.S. More than 1 in 4 of these children, approximately 620,000, are classified as having profound autism.
This new research collaboration highlights Georgia State's growing role as a hub for neuroscience research. The NeuroBridge AI Core further positions Georgia as a national leader in pediatric neuro-AI and translational brain science. With strong collaborations across the state and cutting-edge programs, Atlanta and Georgia are positioned to be a leader in brain health innovation.
"The TReNDS Center and the Marcus Autism Center are among the world-class assets that make Georgia a focal point for neuroscience research," said Tim Denning, president and CEO of the Georgia Research Alliance.
"Georgia State University, Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta are all vital contributors to collaborative endeavors that pursue new answers to autism and other areas of brain health. These kinds of collaborations are needed more than ever to make progress in human health."
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