Multi-Omics Research in Autism
The Project
GEMMA is a consortium of international researchers who have been awarded €14.2M of research funding from the EU. GEMMA will conduct ground-breaking research that will, for the first time, follow children (from 0-6 months of age) who have a family history of autism (i.e. siblings of patients with autism).
This research may lead to earlier diagnosis than is currently possible and help researcher to understand why some children develop autism and others do not.
Who can join?
GEMMA will follow 600 infants in Ireland, Italy and the US who have a family history of autism (siblings of children with ASD) and age 0-6 months. We are particularly interested in hearing from families if:
They have a child with autism and have another child 0-6 months or are waiting for or planning a baby
Advantagies
If you choose to participate in the project, GEMMA will monitor your child’s development and will administer an autism assessment every six months. If your child develops the condition, you will receive a diagnosis as early as possible which will allow you to access early intervention. If your child doesn’t develop autism, you will have access to this information at the earliest possible age.
How to partecipate
If you would like to get involved in GEMMA or you would like more information, please contact the center closest to you:
Three patient recruitment centers are involved to allow a global sampling based on their geographical coverage:
- National University Of Ireland Galway (NUIG) www.nuigalway.ie
- Irish Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (ICAN), Ireland geraldine.leader@nuigalway.ie
- ASL Salerno, Italy: reclutamento@gemma-project.eu
- The General Hospital Corporation, MGH, Boston, U.S.A., www.partners.org, mghgemma@mgh.harvard.edu
GEMMA is a consortium of international researchers who have been awarded €14.2M of research funding from the EU. GEMMA will conduct ground-breaking research that will, for the first time, follow children (from 0-6 months of age) who have a family history of autism (i.e. siblings of patients with autism).
This research may lead to earlier diagnosis than is currently possible and help researcher to understand why some children develop autism and others do not.
Who can join?
GEMMA will follow 600 infants in Ireland, Italy and the US who have a family history of autism (siblings of children with ASD) and age 0-6 months. We are particularly interested in hearing from families if:
They have a child with autism and have another child 0-6 months or are waiting for or planning a baby
Advantagies
If you choose to participate in the project, GEMMA will monitor your child’s development and will administer an autism assessment every six months. If your child develops the condition, you will receive a diagnosis as early as possible which will allow you to access early intervention. If your child doesn’t develop autism, you will have access to this information at the earliest possible age.
How to partecipate
If you would like to get involved in GEMMA or you would like more information, please contact the center closest to you:
Three patient recruitment centers are involved to allow a global sampling based on their geographical coverage:
- National University Of Ireland Galway (NUIG) www.nuigalway.ie
- Irish Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (ICAN), Ireland geraldine.leader@nuigalway.ie
- ASL Salerno, Italy: reclutamento@gemma-project.eu
- The General Hospital Corporation, MGH, Boston, U.S.A., www.partners.org, mghgemma@mgh.harvard.edu
The project will provide solid mechanistic evidence of the disease onset and progression in relation to dynamic changes in abnormal gut microbiota causing epigenetic modifications controlling gut barrier and immune functions, based on the in-depth evaluation of 600 infants who have a family history of autism observed from birth and followed over time. These data will be integrated with pre-clinical studies to mechanistically link human microbiota composition/function with clinical outcome through humanized murine models transplanted with stools obtained from the autistic proband patient of recruited families. GEMMA will support novel personalized prediction (personalized treatment) and disease interception (prevention) approaches that attempt to modulate gut microbiota to re-establish/maintain immune homeostasis. The biomarkers identified in this project will contribute to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of autism in children who have a family history of autism and the possibility to manipulate the microbiota through pre/pro/symbiotic administration for prevention and treatment of GI comorbidities, a complete paradigm shift in autism pathogenesis and early intervention. The identification of specific autism metabolic phenotypes will further aid to define biomarkers that can be used as diagnostic tools and patient stratification models for other conditions in which the interplay between genome, microbiome and metabolic profile has been suspected or proved. Finally, the project will collect biospecimens from a cohort of 600 infants who have a family history of autism observed from birth, generating a unique biobank of 16,000+ blood, stool, urine and saliva samples prospectively collected that can be exploited in future multiomic studies.
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