The Autism Research Program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada are very excited to announce a newly funded collaborative project investigating the genetic basis of autism in extended families. Extended families include mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, and we are interested in looking at extended families in which autism and autistic characteristics seem to "run in the family". These would be families who have three or more individuals with a diagnosis of autism, Asperger's syndrome or autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

We are currently looking for families who would be interested in working with our teams to help tackle some of the mysteries surrounding the genetics of autism. If you might be interested in this study or you know someone who might be interested, please check out the links at the top of this page to read more information or to contact us.