Aidan receives 2026 Autism Science Foundation Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship

We are excited to share that Aidan Gor, an undergraduate student in the Qian Lab and freshman at Penn, has been selected to receive a 2026 Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship from the Autism Science Foundation (ASF). This is a highly competitive national award, with only five undergraduate fellows selected this year.

Aidan’s project, “Mapping cortical disorganization in the autism brain,” will use high resolution spatial transcriptomics to study how neuronal subtypes are organized across the human cerebral cortex in autism. By examining postmortem human brain tissue at single cell resolution, the project aims to better understand whether specific neuronal populations are misplaced or altered in ways that contribute to cortical disorganization in ASD.

We are very proud of Aidan for this outstanding achievement and grateful to the Autism Science Foundation for supporting undergraduate research in autism. We look forward to seeing the progress of his work this summer.

The official announcement is here: https://autismsciencefoundation.org/press_releases/2026-undergrad-fellowships/