Announcer: Unlocking the mysteries of autism and providing new hope for the families and individuals facing its challenges are missions shared by dedicated scientists across the country and around the globe. But despite an overwhelming need for answers, this disorder has not given up its secrets easily, as illustrated by Nancy Minshew, a leading autism researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

Nancy Minshew: Autism is so complex that there's not going to be one thing. What everyone has to realize is that our entire brain and body all started from the coding instructions in that one cell that came from the merging of the sperm and the egg. All of the instructions for every single thing at a molecular level was contained there, so that must be incredibly complex. We can figure it out, but it's going to take us time. We need samples in some areas, six, seven, 10,000 people. We will never get that at one site, and so development of networks has shown us over the past 10 years that we can pool data across sites of various kinds and have a very powerful impact.

Announcer: With the support of five Institutes and Centers at the National Institutes of Health, the National Database for Autism Research, or NDAR, was created as part of the federal response to address the needs of scientists studying autism. The goal of NDAR is to make available to scientists all of the human data now being collected, ranging from molecules to genes, to behavioral, social, and environmental interactions. The goal of NDAR is to make available to scientists all of the human autism data now being collected, ranging from molecules to genes to behavioral, social and environmental interactions. These data are being collected, not only at NIH but also at private organizations and international research efforts being conducted around the globe. Together, they will provide far more research data than could any one lab could collect on its own. Through this effort, NDAR is enabling scientists to better understand autism and thus helping accelerate scientific discovery. As Portia Iversen, co-founder of Cure Autism Now explains.

Portia Iversen: It's kind of like when you go into a pediatrician in a medical system and then you go to a specialist and another specialist, and all the records are centrally located and they can all pull them up on their computer. Another thing to consider is that the kind of scientists who might want to work on autism, but is absolutely daunted by the cost of collecting samples, of getting this type of information together. That problem becomes very diminished and it's no longer really a huge obstacle and so it also creates an opportunity and motivation and incentive for more researchers to get involved in the field of autism research.

Announcer: NDAR's goal of collecting over 90 percent of human subjects data related to one area of research is the first effort of its kind attempted on this grand of a scale. Such an effort requires the active involvement of the research community, but especially those individuals and families consenting for their information to be shared with many scientists. Ed Cook, an autism researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago, sees how family and individual support of NDAR serves as a cornerstone for meaningful, future research.

Ed Cook: For those that volunteer-and I have found people with autism or families with people with autism tend to be extremely generous with their time in volunteering-I think people understand that this is how we are going to know more. The progress might be slow, but especially in the context of younger children, they may benefit from the research in terms of the new treatments.

Announcer: At Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute, Dr. Paul Law serves as Director of the Interactive Autism Network. He is also a parent of an autistic child and sees the value and reach of NDAR.