It exists as a DNA repository and family registry of genotypic and phenotypic information available to autism researchers worldwide[1] AGRE was established in the 1990s by a predecessor organization, Cure Autism Now.

[2] Cure Autism Now was a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization founded in 1995 by Jonathan Shestack and Portia Iversen, the parents of an autistic child, whose story is told in the book Strange Son.

[3] In 1997, Cure Autism Now established AGRE despite initial resistance from scientists to begin a project that conflicted with existing practices.

[4] In October 2011, AGRE announced a plan to create the world's largest library of sequenced human genomes of individuals with autism-related genes, representing 2000 families and 10000 individuals.

[citation needed] To do this, AGRE will provide specimens to the Beijing Genomics Institute, who would perform the sequencing.