Autism post-mortem neuroinformatic resource: the autism tissue program (ATP) informatics portal

The Autism Tissue Program (ATP) was established to oversee and manage brain donations related to neurological research in autism. The ATP Informatics Portal (www.atpportal.org) is an integrated data access system based on Oracle technology, developed to provide access for researchers to information on this rare tissue resource. It also permits sorting of existing cases based on donor ante-mortem history as well as agonal states and post-mortem tissue conditions. Phase II of development established administrative tracking of registrants intending to donate, as well as management of tissue requests and the awarding and tracking of tissue. Phase III is the ongoing assimilation of data sets derived from research on a core group of donors with searchable access by investigators.