Abstract
Despite significant advances in understanding the biological bases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the field remains primarily reliant on observational and parent report measures of behavior to guide clinical practice, conduct research, and evaluate intervention outcomes. There is a critical need for objective measures to more sensitively and validly quantify risk for ASD, ASD symptomatology, and its change in clinical trials. To maximize public health impact, such biomarkers must be cost effective and utilize accessible and scalable technologies. This letter describes concerns specific to the development of clinically practicable biomarkers for ASD and approaches to optimize understanding of these biomarkers through development of large-scale consortia and clinical networks.
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Acknowledgments
The author’s effort was supported by NIH U19 MH108206, NIMH R01 MH107426, NIMH R01 MH100173, and NIMH R01 MH111629. Related concepts were presented as part of a symposium at the International Meeting for Autism Research by the same title in May, 2016 in Baltimore, MD. The author wishes to acknowledge colleagues in the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials for significant contributions to his understanding of the science of biomarker development and its application to ASD and to Geri Dawson for comments on a draft of this letter.
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The author has received research support from NIH, Janssen, the Autism Science Foundation, the Hilibrand Foundation, the Simons Foundation, and the Nancy Taylor Foundation and receives royalties from Guilford, Lambert, and Springer publishers.
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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
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McPartland, J.C. Developing Clinically Practicable Biomarkers for Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 2935–2937 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3237-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3237-7