Pediatric Bioscience LLC has created a partnership for autism research with the University of California.
The autism research startup will sponsor two years of research at the UC Davis MIND Institute to eventually create a blood test to diagnose autism in children and prospective parents.
The partnership — called an Industry University Collaborative Research Program Discovery Grant — effectively teams up the state, the UC system, and Pediatric Bioscience. The state of California will match Pediatric Bioscience’s funding.
The research will be led by Dr. Frank Sharp, a professor in the neurology department at the UC Davis School of Medicine and part of the MIND (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute research team.
“Dr. Sharp is a leader in the research of the genetic causes of autism. Hopefully the research we are supporting will provide insight into whether or not certain specific gene expression traits are being passed on from parent to child, leading to susceptibility to autism in those children,” said Dr. Thomas Anderson, chief executive officer of Pediatric Bioscience. “This is an early step, but a very important one, in the effort to create a realistic test for prospective parents.”
Anderson founded Pediatric Bioscience last year to bring autism diagnostics and therapies to market.