Autism Science Foundation (ASF) is a non profit organization that supports research into autism. ASF was started in April of 2009 by Allison Singer. She was a prior senior executive of Autism Speaks. She was also a member of of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (post coming later). Her cofounder was Karen Margulis London. Margulis was also the co founder of the National Alliance for Autism Research(NAAR) (post coming later). Both Singer and London are parents of autistic children.

ASF was a created as a result of a split from Autism Speaks. At the time, Autism Speaks had vaccine research a high priority. This priority raised concerns with parents and researchers.

Alison Singer, who was senior executive at the time, resigned in January 2009. She did this so she would not have to vote for committing money to new research studies in vaccines and autism. The US  Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee voted against funding.

“There isn’t an unlimited pot of money, and every dollar spent looking where we know the answer isn’t is one less dollar we have to spend where we might find new answers. The fact is that vaccines save lives, they don’t cause autism.”

Later that year with NAAR’s co found Karen London, Singer established ASF as a non profit charity supporting autism research. The main belief is that autism is strongly genetic and vaccines do not cause autism. They believe that early detection and intervention are critical.

ASF supports the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR post will be coming) and has interviewed researchers at this event. ASF offers grants to IMFAR for autistic people and their families so they can attend. They also fun pre and post doctoral researchers.

In 2019, Alison Singer annoucned she had founded the National Council on Severe Autism.

Dr. Paul Offit , a founding board member, donates all his royalties from his books Deadly Choices and Autism’s False Prophets to ASF.

ASF has won GuideStar’s award for being a “Shining Star to those interested in real science and evidence based interventions.”

Why Autistics Do Not Like Autism Science Foundation