Baby Siblings Research Consortium

The Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC) is a network of over 40 highly productive research groups in the United States, Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom. All share a common goal of understanding the very earliest behavioral and biological features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in order to improve early autism detection, diagnosis and treatment.

They have joined together to address important research questions with high-impact, ‘real life’ implications. For example, together they have calculated the recurrence risk in infants with an older sibling with autism, and they have discovered new signs that can help families get a diagnosis even earlier. They have identified differences in brain structure and function that are seen before symptoms emerge. In addition, clinicians now have a better understanding of the needs and challenges in siblings who do not go on to be diagnosed with ASD and can more confidently say when an ASD diagnosis is stable.

To read more about this program, you download a summary of their past accomplishments and future directions here.