Genetic testing for families available as part of Autism study

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - There was a big push against autism on Monday at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

The goal on Monday was to raise awareness of a new study, which is enrolling parents, brothers and sisters of those with autism.

The goal is to speed up research and advance the understanding of autism to improve families’ lives.

The study does this by simply taking saliva samples and analyzing them.

The hope is to find out more about the causes of autism to help children get targeted treatment.

“It's a national whole genome sequencing project and we are we are trying to enroll 50,000 families, impacted by autism around the country, really to bring them into a research community. starting first with this saliva-based genetics study,” said Dr. Craig Erickson, a researcher of autism.

Once researchers have that information, they can tell that certain medications may work better for treatment and also a whole lot more.