Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc., a company focused on diagnosis and individualized treatment of neurological disorders, received a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to support the Children’s Autism Metabolome Project, the company announced today.

“Stemina’s proprietary metabolomics platform technology will revolutionize the way ASD [autism spectrum disorder] is diagnosed and treated,” Stemina CEO Elizabeth Donley said in a statement. “By diagnosing ASD based on the patient’s metabolism, we hope to understand what is different about the metabolism of children with ASD and each subtype compared to typically developing children. This approach will open up a whole new frontier for understanding the disorder and how to treat it.”

According to a release, the study is also supported by a $2.3 million donation from the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation.

Children are being enrolled at hospitals such as MIND Institute at the University of California – Davis, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Little Rock and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, among others.