Advocacy group Autism Speaks is working with Google to sequence the genomes of 10,000 people on the autism spectrum and their family members, Wired reports.
"We believe that the clues to understanding autism lie in that genome," Rob Ring, the chief science officer at Autism Speaks, tells Wired. "We'd like to leverage the same kind of technology and approach to searching the internet every day to search into the genome for these missing answers."
Google will store and index the data on its Cloud Platform, where scientists will be able to access it to study. Wired adds that the project will also make use of Google Genomics, a tool the company launched earlier this year to help researchers search through genomic information.
Autism Speaks' Liz Feld adds that genomic analysis will help researchers and clinicians better understand the various autism spectrum disorders as well as develop tailored treatments.