2025: Our Impact Together

The BRAIN Foundation in Year 2025: Our Impact Together

As the year draws to a close we’d like to thank all of our supporters, collaborators, donors and volunteers and for standing with us during a pivotal year for autism translational research and care. This support helps us to continue to connect scientists, clinicians, biotech innovators, and families around a shared goal: turning research into real-world therapies and standards of care, ultimately improving health, independence, and well-being for every person on the planet with autism.

Our activities and achievements in 2025 spanned scientific symposia, new strategic partnerships, public events, and initiatives to support biomarker-driven diagnostics and therapeutics for autism and related co-morbidities.

Scientific meetings and symposia

⏺ We hosted the Synchrony 2025 Symposium at the historic Asilomar Conference Grounds, Monterey, CA, bringing together clinicians, researchers, startups, industry, and families to share new findings and discuss future directions in autism care and therapeutics. As part of this event we curated sessions on a wide range of topics including planning a standard of care strategy for neuropsychiatric deteriorations in ASD with Stanford, UCSF and other medical research centers, neuroenergetics, emerging/novel treatments, GI pathology, communication and motor supports, and early biomarker-based screening, highlighting paradigm-shifting approaches to autism diagnosis and treatment.

“A big thank you to Pramila, all of BRAIN Foundation’s founders, organizers, speakers, and volunteers for 2025 Synchrony! The conference talks, roundtables, posters, stories and panels had so much depth and breadth- reaching to the limits of science AND looking for practical solutions in the immediate, through academia, area clinics and industry. Much gratitude from a parent 💙🙏🏽”(Sita)

⏺ We engaged with the NIH in a discussion on real world platforms and Data Science initiatives for ASD, and shared our unique perspective and thoughts on the future directions of autism research.

Partnerships and collaborations

⏺ We positioned ourselves as a unique connector between academic centers, biotech companies, and families to accelerate translation of basic science into therapeutic pipelines and standards of care.
⏺ We strengthened our partnership with Stanford to establish a roadmap to get to Delphi consensus for treatment protocols, and publish real world hypothesis through EHR data analyses, and utilize that as a foundation to build a clinical trial network.
⏺ Announced and advanced a partnership with LinusBio to support development and evaluation of hair-based biomarker platforms for earlier, more precise autism diagnosis. As a part of this partnership the company offered reduced-cost testing for at-risk patients and their families.
⏺ Announced partnership with Every Cure, a nonprofit organization focused on drug repurposing to identify and advance new treatments for diseases that currently lack effective, approved therapies. As part of this collaboration we created and published a ‘Potential Therapeutic Drugs for Autism’ list on our website and funded a PhD researcher who will focus on identifying more existing drugs with a potential to be repurposed for autism.

“The BRAIN Foundation has been thoughtful, rigorous, and very bold in investing in innovative science and technologies that’s going to change the lives of children and adults with autism. And as a new member of the scientific board, I am just thrilled to be a part of this incredible mission of The BRAIN Foundation.”
(Jennifer Frankovich MD MS, Stanford University)

Public events, fundraising and community engagement

⏺ We held our very first fundraising gala — ‘A Science Spectacular’. The evening was filled with warmth, inspiration, and a powerful sense of shared purpose. It also included a major milestone: the announcement of an important new autism research initiative with the potential to meaningfully change lives.
⏺ Ran the 2025 BRAIN Foundation Run/Walk fundraiser, growing participation in its second year and using the event to both raise funds and build local awareness around autism research and care needs.
⏺ Participated at SFASA events to reach hundreds of autism families in SF Bay Area

Targeted Research Investment and Grantmaking

⏺ Funded new research projects, including an investigation of intestinal lining dysfunction in autism, and a study on the effects of a newly repurposed drug ethosuximide to target core autism symptoms. Continued funding a number of studies selected the past year to facilitate their completion.
⏺ Welcomed publications of several important studies we funded in previous years such as the study led by Dr. Richard Frye on mitochondrial dysfunction, and a clinical trial of repurposed drug memantine to treat social impairment in young people with autism.

Roadmap for 2026: Emerging Priorities and Future Directions

⏺ We will host a Delphi consensus meeting for differential diagnoses for behavioral exacerbations in ASD in conjunction with Stanford University.
⏺ We will facilitate publishing a clinical consensus protocol and lay the foundation for a clinical trial network to launch trials on a platform. We will complete the planning and regulatory requirements, and start recruitment of centers for the formal launch of a first trial.
⏺ We will continue funding groundbreaking research that has the potential to translate into FDA approved treatments for autism.
⏺ We will continue hosting the three major events, Synchrony 2026, the community Run, and a fundraising Gala.

We are committed to closing the life-expectancy gap in ASD by transforming standards of care and ensuring access to research and clinical trials designed for this historically underserved population.

We hope you will continue to walk beside us in 2026 and beyond.

Sincerely,

Pramila Srinivasan, Ph.D
The BRAIN Foundation

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