A new research center led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus is aiming to boost trust in autism science — by making sure it’s accurate and reliable. Backed by a $5.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Autism Replication, Validation, and Reproducibility (AR²) Center will act as a scientific quality control hub. Its mission: help ensure autism research findings hold up under scrutiny, especially as they guide treatment and policy decisions. A deeper look at autism scienceThe AR² Center is one of 13 projects funded through NIH’s $50 million Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI). Zhong’s co-leaders include Dr. Rainu Kaushal, senior associate dean at Weill Cornell, and Dr. Conor Liston, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry.