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Science in Your Area

Autism Speaks Funded Science in North Carolina

Since 1997, Autism Speaks has funded over $6,379,005 in research grants in the state of North Carolina. Funded studies include work done at:

  • Duke University
  • Duke University, Medical Center
  • Duke University, Medical Center, Department of Neurobiology 
  • University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  • University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, Biochemistry & Biophysics



February 2009:  Autism Speaks Announces $5 Million to Fund Studies on Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors for Autism
Combines Two Projects to Research Risk from Pre-Natal Development Through Early Childhood

Researcher Joseph Piven, M.D., University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, hopes his multi-site effort, Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS), will help to identify brain differences in children who develop ASD using brain imaging techniques to monitor and analyze the brain development of 544 very young infant siblings of children with autism. Some of these infants may go on to develop ASD. Their brain images will be compared to those of other “typical” infants, to identify differences between children who develop autism and those who do not. This study involves examination and correlation of the brain and behavioral changes in very early life that may mark the onset of autistic symptoms. Little is known about the abnormal processes during early brain development in children with ASD and this research could offer new insights that lead to earlier diagnosis of ASD.  Learn more about this announcement.


Local Researcher Spotlight

Dr. Joseph Piven - UNC School of Medicine
Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology
Director of the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities

Joseph Piven received his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland, and his M.D. from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Upon completing medical school, Dr. Piven spent one year as an intern at Good Samaritan hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, before returning to Maryland to do his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was named Chief Resident of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

In 1991, Dr. Piven moved to Iowa City, Iowa as a Professor at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. While at Iowa, Dr. Piven first served as Director and Attending Psychiatrist at the Developmental Disorders Clinic at UIHC.

Piven is currently Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology, and Director of the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a member of the UNC faculty for the last nine years. Recently he was named Editor-in-Chief of the newly created Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Dr. Piven’s research is focused on the pathogenesis of autism including neural mechanisms, genetic basis and neuropsychological and behavioral phenotypes. He is the lead researcher on multiple autism-related studies and currently leads a multi-center national study.


National Science Initiatives


Participate in Research

Useful Speech Study - UNC Chapel Hill:  We are recruiting children and their parents to participate in a research study investigating questions about what may affect the development of expressive language in children with autism. Children should be between the ages of 24 and 47 months old, have been diagnosed with autism, and use no words or very few words to communicate with others.

Children who participate in this study will come to our site in Research Triangle Park for 6 appointments over a 16-month period. The one to two hour appointments, consist of a series of assessments designed to measure and the track the development of communication, language, social, play, motor, and cognitive development. Most of the assessments involve your child playing and interacting with you and the tester. Families are paid after each assessment visit, receiving a total of $225 for completing the study. Additionally, written evaluations will be sent to the parents after each assessment period. Learn more!