When the National Institutes of Health awarded $100 million for autism research earlier this month, several of the nation’s leading institutions studying the developmental disorder were left out in the cold.

Of the NIH’s original Autism Centers of Excellence, the University of California, Los Angeles was the only one to receive renewed “centers of excellence” funding in the latest round.

Meanwhile, research centers at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of California, San Diego did not receive funding.

Many of the universities that were not awarded new money from the government are home to well-regarded autism researchers and the reasons why their funding was not renewed remain unclear.

“It’s unsettling that these funds are being pulled just when important findings are about to percolate to the surface,” one researcher told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. To read more click here.