Spectrum 10K was a cancelled[1] study of autistic people intended to be the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom.
Led by Simon Baron-Cohen under the aegis of the Autism Research Centre (ARC), the study (an outgrowth of the defunct Human Genome Project) included researchers at the University of Cambridge, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
[2] Participants (including adults and minors with parental consent) were asked to contribute their DNA samples via swabs of saliva,[3] as well as information on their overall mental and physical health.
[4] The project, which was anticipated to run for a decade,[5] was controversial from the outset, in part, because the study was led by Baron-Cohen, who had previously criticised by some autistic people due to a proposed "extreme male brain" theory of autism.
[4] Additionally, many in the autism rights movement have criticised the lack of consultation with autistic people or their families,[4] and raised privacy, scientific ethics and eugenics concerns due to fears of sharing genetic data.