ATLANTA, GA — Researchers at Georgia State University are taking on a larger role in two major autism research efforts after new funding was awarded to the Marcus Autism Center, a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta subsidiary. The work will widen the reach of the university’s Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science Center, known as TReNDS, which focuses on neuroimaging, data science and artificial intelligence.
The expanded partnership is aimed at improving understanding of autism and building more personalized supports for children and families. Georgia State researchers say the collaboration gives them a chance to apply advanced tools to a much larger set of studies and clinical data than many autism projects have used in the past.
New awards give the Marcus Autism Center a bigger research platform
The newest funding includes as much as $17.25 million from Aligning Research to Impact Autism, or ARIA, to support the Marcus Autism Center’s participation in the Innovative Medicine and Precision Approaches to Clinical Trials Network. That network, known as IMPACT, is an international autism clinical trials consortium.
The ARIA award comes on top of a separate $21.9 million grant from the Marcus Foundation. That earlier grant is supporting what is being described as the largest-ever study of behavioral, brain and genomic biomarkers in children across the autism spectrum, along with children who have related neurodevelopmental conditions.
Together, the awards place Atlanta-area institutions in a prominent position within autism research that is increasingly focused on scale, data sharing and precision approaches to care.
TReNDS brings imaging, AI and data science to the work
For the ARIA-backed clinical trials network, TReNDS is helping build the data and analytics systems needed to compare information across studies and sites. Researchers are working with a range of measures, including imaging, EEG, eye tracking, wearables, clinical assessments and molecular data.
The goal is to make that information usable in a way that is both scalable and reproducible. That matters in autism research because data often comes from different teams, tools and settings, and it can be difficult to line up results without a strong technical foundation.
By contributing those capabilities, Georgia State’s center is moving beyond a supporting role and into infrastructure work that could influence how findings are gathered and tested across the broader consortium.
A five-year study aims to follow about 7,500 children
The Marcus Foundation-funded project is expected to enroll about 7,500 children ages 5 to 12 over five years. Researchers say that kind of scale offers a chance to move beyond smaller studies and look for patterns that can be reproduced across a large and diverse group of children.
TReNDS is leading the NeuroBridge AI Core for that study. The core is designed to combine behavioral, brain imaging, physiological, genetic and other biological information into a single framework for understanding autism.
That approach could help scientists compare different developmental paths and identify which combinations of traits may be connected to different outcomes. It also reflects the growing use of artificial intelligence in research that requires large amounts of complex, overlapping data.
Researchers hope the work will support precision medicine for autism
One long-term goal is to help advance precision medicine for autism, a model that uses behavioral, neurological and biological information to better understand why children develop differently and how support can be better matched to individual needs.
Researchers involved in the work say the broader aim is not simply to collect more information, but to translate findings into practical tools that can improve care. For TReNDS, that means continuing to focus on translational research that can move discoveries from the lab into real-world use.
Vince Calhoun, founding director of the TReNDS Center, said the team has spent years creating tools that turn complex brain and biomedical data into meaningful insights. He said working with the Marcus Autism Center allows those capabilities to be used at a scale that can push the field toward more precise and personalized autism care.
Georgia State leaders point to broad research impact
Georgia State officials said the collaboration highlights how different disciplines can work together on difficult health questions. Donald Hamelberg, vice president for Research and Economic Development at Georgia State, said the university is proud to see its research expertise contribute to a deeper understanding of autism.
He said the effort shows how researchers can combine data science, advanced technologies and specialized knowledge to address complex human health challenges. That message fits the university’s broader push to connect academic research with practical outcomes that matter to families and clinicians.
For Atlanta’s research community, the new funding strengthens a growing network of institutions working on autism from several angles at once: clinical trials, imaging, genetics, biomarker discovery and data integration.