# Toward Healthy Aging in Adults with Autism: A Longitudinal Clinical and Multimodal Brain Imaging Study

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2024 · $2,283,568

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disorder that has consequences throughout adulthood. Recent
population health studies indicate that aging autistic adults have shorter life expectancy and increased rates of
physical and mental health problems. However, there is a paucity of studies that have focused on the progression
of health and wellness with aging in ASD and factors that can contribute to better or worse outcomes. In this
Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) Network project, the Interdisciplinary Science to Learn about Autism – Aging
(ISLA-A) Network will deploy a harmonized, optimized, and innovative protocol to investigate the effects of aging
in autism in one of the largest prospective longitudinal cohort studies of autistic adults to date. The aims of the
ISLA-A center are 1) to establish and follow a large cohort of autistic male and female adults, siblings and age-
and sex- matched non-autistic adults with a comprehensive harmonized research protocol to investigate multi-
modal aspects of aging, including measures of clinical severity, physical and mental health, cognitive aging,
brain structure and function, and epigenetic measures of biological aging; 2) to characterize both group and
individual age-related changes in autism severity, health, wellness and brain measures with aging; 3) to
investigate the relationships between clinical, health, and brain imaging measures; and 4) to investigate whether
biological aging is accelerated in autism using new epigenetic measures of aging. The overarching goal of the
ISLA-A Network is to create a comprehensive, harmonized, and high-dimensional dataset that will characterize
trajectories of aging in autism that may be used to investigate whether early or accelerated aging is a hallmark
feature of autism, and how aging in autism influences health and brain outcomes. The inclusion of siblings, who
share genetics with the autistic adult cohort, will help to identify autism-specific factors related to aging and
outcomes. The ISLA-A study results will identify candidate factors that are predictive to autism aging outcomes
and will guide the development of interventions and services to improve outcomes. This new large, multi-modal,
longitudinal, and generalizable dataset will be shared with the autism research community for independent
studies. Overall, the ISLA-A Network study will generate a rich, high-impact resource for better understanding of
aging in autism, with the ultimate goal of improving the health and support of autistic adults.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10875412
- **Project number:** 5R01MH132218-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** ANDREW L ALEXANDER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $2,283,568
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-06 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10875412

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10875412, Toward Healthy Aging in Adults with Autism: A Longitudinal Clinical and Multimodal Brain Imaging Study (5R01MH132218-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10875412. Licensed CC0.

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