In recent years, the Simons family foundation has promised to donate $38 million to study the causes of autism, and at the same time, it will invest another $654.38 billion, all of which will be used to study the treatment of autism. Simmons will personally ask about the whereabouts and use of this investment. Simmons provided his family's DNA for the research and gave assistance to help solve the research problems. When MIT asked Simmons for funding for brain research, Simmons stipulated that the project should include autism research, and he personally selected scientists.

On June 1 1, 2003, Simons Foundation held the first "Autism Research Group Meeting" in new york. The one-day conference includes discussing the causes of autism, the genome map of autistic patients and biochemical treatment. Participants included Dr. David Amaral, Dr. Eric Courchesne, Dr. Nathaniel Heinz, Dr. Tom Insel, Dr. Catherine Lord, Dr. Fred Volkmar and Dr. Paul Greengard. On June, 2003, 1 1, the Simons Foundation donated 1 million dollars to the Children's Research Center of Yale University, and two researchers from the center studied the genetic effects of autism.