# HTORR/ NIMH ASD and Control Brain Recovery Project

> **NIH NIH U42** · NATIONAL DISEASE RESEARCH INTERCHANGE · 2021 · $295,903

## Abstract

Program Director/Principal Investigator (Bell, Thomas, J.):
PROJECT TITLE: HTORR/ NIMH ASD and Control Brain Recovery Project
PROJECT SUMMARY (PY6):
The Human Tissue and Organ Research Resource (HTORR) is a program of the National Disease
Research Interchange (NDRI) and is an essential resource that uses systems customized to meet
individual researcher requests to recover and distribute a broad range of high quality normal and
diseased human tissues recovered from a diverse donor pool to facilitate their research needs. In 2015,
NDRI established the Autism Spectrum Disease (ASD) HTORR program to recovery ASD and control
brain to support the advancement of ASD research. This program has been continuously funded for five
program, years by the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) via an administrative supplement (grant
number 5U42OD011158) to the parent HTORR. The supplemental grant enabled the establishment of a
network of tissue source sites (TSS) for the purpose of screening acute death referrals for eligible ASD
and control donors. In years 1 through 5 of the program, NDRI developed and maintained a TSS network
of 14 source sites that serve a population of approximately 60 million and screen approximately 500,000
acute death referrals for eligible donor candidates for this program. The ASD HTORR program has been
successful with the development and implementation of a standard practice to identify both ASD and
control brain donors from this important research resource. In PY6, the program predicts that a total of 15
brain recoveries will occur. For program year 6, NDRI is proposing the following key objectives to
maintain and enhance the efforts of the program NDRI will: 1) provide oversight and project management
for the ASD HTORR brain recovery network via regular outreach, conference calls and site-visits, 2)
maintain the screening, authorization, recovery, packaging and shipping training requirements for the
ASD HTORR brain recovery network, 3) uphold all IRB requirements for the project through NDRI's IRB
protocol with the University of Pennsylvania, including the ASD HTORR project-specific donor
authorization, 4) conduct brain recovery retraining events, as needed, to preserve the technical expertise
of the ASD HTORR brain recovery network, 5) coordinate donor screening, brain recovery, and
packaging with the ASD HTORR brain recovery network and shipping to the National Institute of Health
NeuroBioBank at the University of Maryland (NIH NBB-Maryland), 6) provide a combined total of 15 ASD
and pediatric control brains and matched temporal muscle samples to the NIH NBB-Maryland, 7) promote
the ASD HTORR program and NIH NBB-Maryland at two or more national meetings.
RELEVANCE:
The proposed continuation of the Autism Spectrum Disease Human Tissue and Organ Research
Resource (ASD HTORR) program into PY6 will help to meet the unmet demand for brains from post -
mortem donors with and without a history of ASD. The establishment of the ASD H...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10191329
- **Project number:** 3U42OD011158-30S3
- **Recipient organization:** NATIONAL DISEASE RESEARCH INTERCHANGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Thomas J Bell
- **Activity code:** U42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $295,903
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 1989-01-09 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10191329

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10191329, HTORR/ NIMH ASD and Control Brain Recovery Project (3U42OD011158-30S3). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10191329. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*