Tissue Catalogue

Welcome to the Autism BrainNet tissue catalogue.

The catalogue lists fixed and frozen brain tissue from individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), individuals without a diagnosis of autism but with a genetic diagnosis included in the SPARK gene list that confers a high risk of ASD, and individuals with no psychiatric or neurologic conditions, that are available for research from the Autism BrainNet collection. The collection also includes brains from the Autism Tissue Program (ATP), a former program of Autism Speaks.

Researchers may use the catalogue to search available specimens, request samples and select specimens of interest to generate a collection ‘code’ that can be used to indicate preferred specimens with a tissue request application.

Additional information about the specimens is available to approved researchers through SFARI Base.

Searches may be filtered by tissue preparation (frozen/fixed/celloidin) as well as the donor’s sex, age and diagnosis (ASD/control/ epilepsy/other) as detailed below. Tissue quality measures such as postmortem interval (PMI) and RNA Integrity Number (RIN) are also provided.

  • ASD — confirmed diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder with or without epilepsy; may include other co-occurring conditions
  • Control — no known psychiatric or neurological conditions
  • Epilepsy — primary diagnosis of epilepsy without ASD; may include other co-occurring conditions
  • NDD/No ASD — related genetic condition without ASD

Where ASD is indicated, an autism diagnosis has been confirmed via postmortem Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) or through systematic review of available, relevant records. Additional phenotypic and genetic information on the donors will be also available to approved researchers.

The catalogue is continuously updated as new diagnoses are confirmed and donations are received.

->For a summary of postmortem brain tissue samples available by preparation,
click here.
->For a summary of genetic conditions represented in the Autism BrainNet collection, click here.

For more information:

  • To access the tissue catalogue, click here.
  • Information about the tissue request process can be found here.
  • For question about tissue requests, email [email protected].