Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie jets in for giant-size donation to New York autism researchers

Autism researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory say grant money from Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie will go toward tackling the role inflammation plays in the condition's development.

The laboratory is among three science and research stalwarts on Long Island and New York City tapped for a $1.2 million grant, of which each will receive $400,000, as part of a total of $10.8 million in donation's globally through the billionaire Lurie's Eagles Autism Foundation.

At Cold Spring Harbor, influenza and accompanying inflammation during the early stages of pregnancy have been the focus of research for the past four years into some of autism's potential root causes.

"The lab is really interested in understanding how the brain develops and what factors can lead to autism spectrum disorder," said Lucas Cheadle, a neuroscience researcher in Cold Spring Harbor who works with the Maryland-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 

Research has shown that women with pathogenic infections during pregnancy, including influenza, can run a greater risk of autism for the baby, Cheadle said.

Lurie, whose brother Peter was diagnosed as a child on the autism spectrum, made funding available for competitive proposals through the foundation's Eagles Autism Challenge.

Eagles team officials said they received 267 letters, which were reviewed by a team of scientists to fund 54 proposals, including 20 different projects for autism research, 13 pilot grants and four postdoctoral fellowships.

Since 2018, officials said, the organization has poured $40 million into 223 autism research projects.

"The prevalence of autism has increased year over year at a time this community funding is needed for advocacy support and breakthroughs in treatment and prevention to help people live their best lives," Ryan Hammond, director of the Eagles Autism Foundation, said in a statement.

Stony Brook University and Mount Sinai Hospital’s Icahn School of Medicine in Manhattan shared in the $1.2 million grant over two years for pilot programs.

About 1 in 36 children can develop autism and studies have shown that between 60% to 80% of autism cases are through genetic mutations, said Cheadle, who has conducting the autism study with Brian Kalish, a neonatologist at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard University.

"We know genetics and environmental factors play a role as well," Cheadle said.

Scientists don’t know what inflammatory factors in the mother can lead to brain changes in the fetus that could cause the condition, which overall is more common in males. One theory is that females have a less inflammatory reaction because the embryo is more similar to the mother’s genetics, Cheadle said.

Research has also looked at the inflammatory effects of autism from infections of COVID-19 and treatment of HIV.

"There’s growing clinical data suggesting this is something to be looking at and special in our work. People haven’t been looking this closely, this early on," Cheadle said. "We’re interested in what is happening in the inflammatory environment triggering this cascade of events."

The grant funding will allow researchers like Cheadle to test their hypotheses and hopefully find therapeutic drugs to neutralize inflammatory effects that may cause autism in the early stages of pregnancy.

Grant funding also went to Stony Brook associate professor Howard Sirotkin, whose research will look at personalized treatments for autism.

Nan Yang, an associate neuroscience professor at the Icahn School of Medicine, will use the grant funding to dissect mutation-specific mechanisms in the genetics disorder that is often associated with autism.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.