A UK university has been handed a £20 million fund to investigate new treatments for autism, it has been announced.

Edinburgh University, which received the fund from the Simons Foundation, said their team of experts will use the money to look into changes in brain development linked with the condition.

“This is an amazing opportunity to bring together a range of scientific and clinical expertise at the university with the aim of understanding how the brain develops on multiple levels, including molecular biology, neural circuitry, genetics, behaviour and cognition,” said centre director, Professor Peter Kind.

He said his team will use state-of-the-art technology to monitor brain development in the presence of DNA changes known to cause autism.

“By combining these approaches, we will learn how a healthy brain matures and gain valuable insights into the developmental origins of autism,” he added.

“Using this knowledge, we aim to deliver new diagnostic tools, better therapeutics and new interventions to the clinic that will address the causes and consequences of autism.”

The fund will help the 75 million people worldwide who are affected by autism.

Louis Reichardt, director of the Simons Foundation autism research initiative, said: “We hope the foundation’s support will enable them to apply these types of studies to other conditions on the autism spectrum.”