Rutgers is one of the largest universities in the country with over 60,000 students and research expenditures surpassing 600 million dollars. Rutgers is an innovative university with issuing 748 US patents in the last 10 years and successfully linking research with industry within the US and internationally. Rutgers has vast and varied ASD-related professional training programs including 2 major medical schools, schools of dental medicine and nursing, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP), social work, and the NJ Leadership and Training in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (NJ LEND) program. The Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) organizes all neuroscience research at Rutgers and is a resource for disseminating NJACE information. Rutgers neuroscience includes faculty from over 25 departments on 4 campuses (Newark, Camden, New Brunswick, RBHS) including over 265 faculty and over 400 students and fellows. Research between Rutgers and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute is stimulated by recently established Rutgers-Princeton Center for Cognitive Computational Neuropsychiatry (CCNP) as well as a joint MD/PhD program. Over the last 5 years, Rutgers alone has brought over $73 million dollars in autism research involving basic science studies from molecules to behavior and applications to clinical areas of diagnoses and treatments.
Children’s Specialized Hospital (CSH), with 13 locations throughout NJ, is the nation’s leading provider of care to children with special health needs and the largest provider of services for children and adolescents with ASD in the geographic region. CSH is part of the RWJ Barnabas Health system. CSH autism research includes focus on reducing health disparities for underserved youth at risk for ASD, expanding medical homes, and developmental screening by child care providers (over $3 million funded over past 5 years) as well as multiple clinical trials and a distinguished lecture series. CSH education activities include a 3 year Developmental Pediatric Fellowship in collaboration with Rutgers, a 1 year Developmental Nursing Fellowship, experiential programs for varied medical and therapy trainees including LEND fellows, and a research internship program. Community outreach includes a statewide community-based developmental screening program, training for first responders, recreation providers and child protection workers, and an online community hub for ASD resources and training. CSH provides a wide array of diagnostic, therapeutic and recreation programs for children and teens with ASD including primary care services within a medical home model.
The Governor’s Council is part of the New Jersey Department of Health and was created by the state to issue clinical, educational and research based grants. The Council strives to enhance the lives of individuals with ASD across their lifespans by helping the state advance in ASD research and training. One dollar surcharge from motor vehicle violations and fines are funded towards the Council’s initiatives which results in approximately $4 million dollars annually.
Contact us
We are funded in part by the New Jersey Governor’s Council for the Medical Research and Treatments of Autism and by the NJ DOH.
Younger siblings of children with ASD are known to be at higher risk for developing language delays. The Infancy Studies Lab at Rutgers University-Newark has created an engaging interactive acoustic experience with the aim of helping baby siblings of children with ASD develop better pre-language skills known to be important for optimal and efficient language acquisition. Watch this short video to learn more about how to participate in this exciting, innovative research study.