National Alliance for Autism Research
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The National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR), based in Princeton, New Jersey, is a non-profit advocacy organization, founded by parents of children with autism concerned about the limited funding available for research.
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[edit] Origins and activities
NAAR was founded in 1994 as an attempt to stimulate biomedical research and science-based approaches to understanding, treating, and curing autistic spectrum disorders. The founders comprised a small group of parents, including two psychiatrists, a lawyer and a chemistry professor.
NAAR has raised money to provide research grants focusing on autism, and has committed an excess of $20 million to over 200 autism research projects, fellowships and collaborative programs - more than any other non-governmental organization. NAAR has focused intently on its role in establishing and funding the Autism Tissue Program, a post-mortem brain tissue donation program designed to further autism research studies at the cellular and molecular level. Other major programs include the 'High Risk Baby Sibling Autism Research Project', and the 'NAAR Genome Project'. NAAR also publishes the NAARRATIVE [1], a newsletter on autism biomedical research. In early 2006, NAAR merged with Autism Speaks.
[edit] Controversies
NAAR helped fund the controversial Danish epidemiological study, along with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which concluded no link could be found between MMR vaccines and the apparent autism epidemic that has affected a number of countries around the globe. Detractors contend the study was flawed on a number of grounds, and that the study was conducted by researchers compromised by conflict of interest problems.
NAAR has encountered criticism that it is influenced by the pharmaceutical industry.[citation needed] "These statements are simply false," according to a statement on the NAAR.org website, which contends inaccurate and misleading information has been circulated. Their rebuttal of such attacks was endorsed by the Wall Street Journal. [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- NAAR.org - National Alliance for Autism Research (homepage)
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- NAAR.org - 'Pharmaceutical Industry & NAAR: The truth about NAAR's relationship with the pharmaceutical industry and vaccine research focusing on autism'
- Aspires-Relationships.com - 'The Autism Autoimmunity Project (TAAP) is disappointed in the NBC TV series on autism'
- AutismTools.org - ISAAC (Internet System for Assessing Autistic Children)
- PsychiatricTimes.com - 'A Psychiatrist's Journey from Parent to Founder of Research Advocacy Organization', Eric London, MD, Psychiatric Times, vol 14, no 11 (November, 1997)
