Recently, researchers have discovered 60 genes associated with autism spectrum disorder, which may provide important clues to studying the causes of all spectrum disorders in autism.

Introduction

Recently, researchers have discovered 60 genes related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which may provide important clues for studying the causes of all spectrum disorders in autism.

The main data source for this study comes from the SPARK Autism Research Project of the Simons Foundation.

Simmons Foundation's research on autism is "a beacon", which promotes researchers' attention to autism and carries the hopes of countless autistic families.

Why does the Simmons Foundation focus on autism, and how do they screen and fund outstanding scientists and research institutions? Let's see how it works today.

Xu Shilu | Written by

Li Xiaowei, Ivy | Editor-in-chief

"This provides me with an unparalleled research environment." A researcher funded by the Simmons Foundation said in an interview.

This researcher is just a case of funding from the Simmons Foundation, and countless scientists and research institutions are benefiting from the Simmons Foundation.

Simmons Foundation has a strict selection system. To understand how the Simmons Foundation fundes scientists and research institutions, we have to start from the beginning of its establishment.

1

The original intention of establishing the foundation: cure your daughter's autism

People's actions always require a wish to guide them, and the Simmons Foundation also has its original intention and vision.

Simmons King Foundation was founded in 1994 and was co-founded in New York City by well-known mathematician, philanthropist and investor James Simons and his second wife Marilyn Simons.

Before introducing the foundation, we might as well explore what kind of legendary past the founder who has maintained a strict attitude towards scientific research has. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, USA. As of July 2019, " Forbes " reported that its net worth was as high as 21.7 billion US dollars, making it the 44th richest person in the world at that time.

Simmons, picture from wikipedia.org

Simmons has demonstrated his strong mathematical logic skills since childhood. With his mathematical knowledge, he wins every time when playing cards with friends.

1961, at the age of 23, he was awarded the prestigious award in the field of geometry - the Oswald Vibran Award. Later, we came to Shimons University in New York to teach by chance. A few years later, the originally ordinary Shimons Department of Mathematics , Geometry , shining under the influence of Simmons. Now we can easily search "Simmons Geometry Physics Center, Stony University" .

1978, Simmons divorced his first wife, which made him feel depressed and he was determined to make more money. At that time, Simmons, who was eager to find a new direction, found Mr. Chen Shengshen, one of the greatest geometricians of the 20th century, known as the "father of overall differential geometry", to inquire about whether it is better to go into politics or do business. Chen Shengsheng told him that is much more complicated than mathematics, and it is not suitable for him, so it is better to do business.

So Simmons turned to the investment world. In 1982, Simmons founded the famous hedge fund company, Renaissance Technology. He hired many physicists, mathematicians, programmers, , and even astronomers to build prediction model . This entrepreneurial experience was very successful and made him a well-known investor. After successful investment in

, he returned to the field of mathematics and founded the Simmons Foundation in 1994. The foundation's initial office was his wife's dressing room. Later, it gradually expanded outward and its operation became more and more mature, and finally became the "Simmons Foundation" we know now.Of course, part of the reason for founding the foundation is due to his family, the couple has five children, and unfortunately, their two sons died accidentally and one daughter has autism.

Simmons and his wife, picture from caknowledge.com

To cure her daughter, Simmons established the Simmons Foundation, which is a charitable organization, aims to support basic scientific research to understand world phenomena or drive discovery . He and his wife serve as chairman of the foundation.

Simmons Foundation homepage, screenshot from simonsfoundation.org

In the early 21st century, the Simmons began to fund famous neurologists and geneticists, such as HD at Rockefeller University (Paul Greengard), HD at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Chris Walsh at Boston Children's Hospital.

In 2006, Gerald Fischbach, former dean of the School of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia University, joined Simmons’ Autism Program, and these early funding merged to form the current “Simmon Foundation Autism Research Initiative” (SFARI).

Wendy Chung, then research director of SFARI, introduced the experts' understanding of autism in his 2014 TED speech

At present, SFARI has become a beacon in the autism research community. The project has funded more than 550 researchers around the world and has funded scientific research that is of great help to the current knowledge of autism biology discoveries.

The SPARK project mentioned above is a plan launched by SFARI in 2016 to determine the cause of autism, to improve people's understanding of autism and improve the lives of families of people with autism. As of now, this project has recruited more than 116,000 families.

New research has found 60 genes related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Screenshots are from nature.com

Of course, although the original intention of the Simmons Foundation is to study autism, they have not limited their attention to one area. The Simmons Foundation supports more than just autism-related research. As the official website of the Simmons King Foundation introduced, the Simmons Foundation's mission is to "promote the cutting-edge of mathematics and basic scientific research" . Their funding work also focuses on the research of mathematics, physical sciences and life sciences.

Between 2014 and 2021, the total annual expenditure of each project funded by the Simmons Foundation (unit: million US dollars)

According to the Simmons Foundation's 2021 annual report, its net assets were US$4.3 billion as of the end of 2021. From 2014 to the present, its investment in six areas has increased year by year: the Flatiron Institute, mathematics and physical sciences, life sciences, neuroscience collaboration, autism research, and education and outreach.

After we learned about the funding directions of interest to the Simmons Foundation, we can’t help but wonder how these investments it has been allocated every year and how to select outstanding scientists to fund?

2

Simmons Foundation has established a strict selection mechanism

Simmons Foundation is very strict in the selection of personnel and projects. Take the Simmons Foundation’s “Independence Award” as an example. This award is divided into three parts:

, Simmons Foundation’s Autism Research Program (SFARI) Independent Bridge Award;

, Simmons Global Brain Cooperation (SCGB) Independent Transition Award

, Simmons Cooperation Plasticity and Aging Brain (SCPAB) Independent Transition Award.The three award programs of

emphasize different scientific tasks and have different qualification standards, focusing on autism spectrum disorder, internal brain state, elasticity and functional maintenance mechanism issues of the non-diseased aging brain, and setting corresponding qualification standards and selection processes respectively.

"Independent Award" is divided into three parts. The picture comes from the researcher selection process for three parts: simonsfoundation.org

. Screenshots are from simonsfoundation.org

As Simmons said before founding the foundation and was still running his own fund company: "We do not hire students with poor mathematical logic." Although he had never heard him say such absolute words after founding the Simmons Foundation, it is not difficult to imagine that Simmons' requirements for researchers must be not low.

In the Simmons Foundation’s just cut off, it says in black and white: The scholarship will allow the “clever minds today” to apply their talents and expertise to new fields, and will provide one year of training during which the researcher will work in the tutor’s lab to learn new disciplines and their culture.

Its screening criteria are to support researchers with a good record of success and achievement in the current field and to evaluate whether their interest, curiosity and motivation to contribute to the new discipline are strong. In addition to the applicant's qualifications and potential, during the application process, the foundation will also fully consider whether the applicant's supervisor is suitable and whether the guidance environment is good enough.

In addition, researchers and their supervisors applying for the "Pivot Scholarship" must hold a PhD (or equivalent) in Natural Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science, or Computer Science or their sub-disciplines and teach or hold an equivalent position in an academic institution. Before receiving this grant, the researcher must also request a year-long vacation from his institution and shall not hold any funding for any other project.

In other words, the funding recipients of the "Pivot Scholarship" must not only have the "smarst mind", but also have the "superior environment", "the simplest source of funds", and "the purest research process". This shows the strictness of the Simmons Foundation in personnel screening.

3

Simmons Foundation provides multi-faceted support for young scholars

In terms of daily activities, the Simmons Foundation is very active. They founded the weekly "Simmons Foundation Presidential Prize", a free public symposium that focuses on four key topics: biology, physics, mathematics and computer science, as well as neuroscience and autism science.

These carefully curated scientific lectures feature cutting-edge scientists and mathematicians, aiming to promote dialogue in the wider research community, in order to promote new scientific research results and new discoveries. Science lectures are just a small part of the Simmons Foundation’s public view. From a global perspective, they have two forms of support for science:

. Provide grants to individual researchers and their projects through academic institutions to support their research;

. Since the establishment of the Iron Institute, the Simmons Foundation has also had internal scientific research to support the team of top computing scientists.

Funding opportunities provided by the Simmons Foundation Screenshot source: simonsfoundation.org

·Funding support

In terms of financial support, the Simmons Foundation's focus mainly focuses on four fields: mathematics and physical sciences, life sciences, neuroscience and autism research. Many of these projects are funding young scientists, and these people are often not independent PIs. Lack of funds is a common problem they face, and the Simmons Foundation will have many projects to fund this group.

Simmons Foundation also found that one of the most significant milestones in their careers for scientists is the transition from mentor support to independent research. But unfortunately, there are various factors in the modern biomedical ecosystem that make this transition process one of the most vulnerable times in their academic careers. Therefore, the Simmons Foundation has set up an "Independence Award" in hopes to help these scientists survive this difficult period.

Specific awards are as follows:

. Mathematics and Physical Sciences: Provide institutions with targeted subsidies, Simmons Mathematics Research Institute, Mathematician Cooperation Grants, NSF-Simons Research Cooperation on the Mathematics and Science Foundations of Deep Learning, etc.;

. Life Sciences: Simmons Early Career Researcher Award for Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Evolution, Simmons Postdoctoral Fellowship in Marine Microbial Ecology, Moore-Simmons Project on the Origin of Eukaryotic Cells, etc.;

. Neuroscience: SCGB (The Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF Program), etc.;

. Autism Research: ASD's Genomics-Biofusion and Genetic Therapy Pathways, Bridge of Independence Award Program, Explorer Award RFA, etc.

In addition, the Simmons Foundation will also set up some targeted awards to provide support to specific groups of scientific researchers. Director of the Center for Geometry and Physics of University of Science and Technology of China Chen Xiuxiong , representatives of Peking University's "golden generation" of mathematics Yun Zhiwei , etc., are the representatives of this award.

Iron Institute, screenshot source: simonsfoundation.org

Member of the Center for Computational Biology of the Iron Institute Image source: annualreports.simonsfoundation.org

·Iron Institute

In addition to providing financial support to academic institutions and individuals, the Simmons Foundation has also established the Iron Institute to conduct scientific research within itself to support the team of top computing scientists.

Iron Institute is divided into six parts: the Center for Computational Astrophysics, the Center for Computational Biology, the Center for Computational Mathematics, the Center for Computational Neuroscience, the Center for Computational Quantum Physics and the Center for Scientific Computational Computational Center.

Its mission is to promote scientific research through computational methods, including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation. This is a community of scientists whose scientists are working to improve their understanding of science by analyzing large, rich data sets and simulating physical processes.

4

Chen Shengshen: Chen named after the two - Simmons Tower

What makes people wonder is that if Simmons had not consulted Chen Shengshen at the beginning, but chose to go into politics by himself, would he still be the Simmons we know now?

The relationship between Simmons and Chen Shengshen goes back decades ago. In 1974, they jointly published a paper, proposing the chern-simons form, which describes three-dimensional topological quantum field theory and is widely used in the field of physics. It is this theorem that won Simmons' Oswald Veblen Prize in 1976, which is the largest award in the geometry and topology . This theory indirectly promoted the birth of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Simmons and his friends Chen Shengshen and Yang Zhenning (One Yang Zhenning from the right, the second right Chen Shengshen, the third right Simmons from the right, and the fourth right Marilyn from the right)

Simmons is also very grateful to Chen Shengshen and donated to build two buildings named after Chen Shengshen.

Chen Simmons Building at Tsinghua University, picture source mathcubic.org

In 2005, the building built by Simmons donated to commemorate Chen Shengshen was completed in Tsinghua University , and this building was also named after them - "Chen Simmons Building".

Chen Shengshen Building at the University of California, Berkeley was also donated by Simmons and expanded in 2006. Interestingly, this expansion project also built a new concert hall that cost $10.5 million, named after Simmons, named "Simons Auditorium".

Chen Shengshen often joked during his lifetime, I hope I can live a few more years so that I can ask Simmons for more money.

genius legend has never been just a legend. The "Simmons Foundation" founded by Simmons is truly providing support to scholars at the forefront of science. Their research results will continue to promote the development of world science, which makes everyone excited and look forward to it.