The autism science community this week tweeted about whether underpowered studies pose ethical questions, if Spectrum 10K should restart and why autistic advocates participate in biomedical research.

After a months-long review, the United Kingdom’s Health Research Authority upheld an earlier ethics approval for the embattled autism genetics study.

Machine-learning tools are widely available and can help speed up studies in animal models of autism. Here’s how to get started with the ‘minimal viable product’ and a few pro tips.

Of nine genetic models examined in a new study, all had some incidence of cardiac abnormalities. But the problems varied widely depending on the affected genes.

This week’s newsletter looks at tweets about COVID-19 at last week’s INSAR meeting, an unusual enhancer regulating the autism-linked gene PTEN, and new findings from the Infant Brain Imaging Study.

This edition plots school suspensions and the unemployment gap for autistic people, and charts outcomes for those who attend regular health checks.

A deactivated form of the gene editor restores UBE3A expression in mice and human neurons without cutting the genome. It may hold promise for future Angelman gene therapies.

Increased white-matter maturation tracks with stronger language abilities later in childhood, but the relationship with cortical thickness is less clear.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published the first repository of vocalizations from minimally verbal autistic people. Those with few or no spoken words still produce a range of phonemes, or units of sound, that may serve as developmental markers or intervention targets.

The findings contradict a previous study, whose design may have been biased to find an effect.