It’s a mixed bag of ICYMIs from the autism research Twittersphere this week, ranging from separable cell clusters to research concerns of various kinds.
First we’re highlighting a tweet about neural organoids, which hold promise for high-throughput drug screens. Growing enough of these cell clusters in suspension, however, presents a problem: They start to fuse together. A new preprint on bioRxiv offers a solution, tweeted lead researcher Sergiu Pasca, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University in California.
By adding a cheap polymer to the mix, he and his team kept apart more than 2,400 cortical organoids in culture for screening hundreds of drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as agents that cause growth defects.
Generating neural #organoids in suspension can be relatively straightforward. But scaling production is challenged by undesired fusion. In a new @biorxivpreprint Genta & @myym_yuki identify a cheap polymer to add that allows 1 person to grow >2400 organoids and run a drug screen pic.twitter.com/C7V9k90Xti
— Sergiu P. Pasca (@Sergiu_P_Pasca) April 2, 2022
“This sounds like a very productive way of growing organoids,” tweeted Luise Seeker, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
“Game changer!” wrote Meng-meng Fu, Statdman investigator at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland.
Game changer! https://t.co/H8S3Oz1Us4
— Meng-meng Fu (@Meng2Fu) April 2, 2022
The Autism Intervention Meta-Analysis, or Project AIM for short, has had some unexpected fallout, tweeted Micheal Sandbank, assistant professor of special education at the University of Texas at Austin, who led the study. It’s something that “keeps happening that I’ve been hesitant to address, but probably should,” she wrote.
Something keeps happening that I've been hesitant to address, but probably should. Since we published the original findings of Project AIM, many have attempted to portray the findings as a blanket endorsement of a specific cause… 1/
— Micheal Sandbank (@MichealSandbank) April 4, 2022
Many people, she says, have tried to paint the study’s original findings as blanket endorsements for or against specific interventions — with some providers going so far as to feature photos of Sandbank on their sites.
whether that cause is support for a specific intervention approach or advocacy against use of a specific intervention approach. I've been surprised to find my face on websites that advocate for the use of a specific intervention approach that I wouldn't necessarily endorse. 2/
— Micheal Sandbank (@MichealSandbank) April 4, 2022
But Project AIM, she notes, never set out to provide evidence to support or invalidate any particular intervention — and Sandbank says she is “not interested in carrying the flag for any specific cause (except maybe the cause to get authors to publish their raw means and SDs in every paper!).”
I'm not interested in carrying the flag for any specific cause (except maybe the cause to get authors to publish their raw means and SDs in every paper!). If you refer to Project AIM in reference to your own assertions, please do not attribute words to us that are not ours…. 6/
— Micheal Sandbank (@MichealSandbank) April 4, 2022
And for this #AutismAcceptanceMonth, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network released a statement on genetic research, which they tweeted about in a six-part thread.
This Autism Acceptance Month, ASAN has released a statement on genetics research in plain language, explaining our concerns with current research and calling for much-needed safeguard for all genetic research relating to autism. Read more: https://t.co/NXC0lkwEmE (1/6)
— Autistic Self Advocacy Network (@autselfadvocacy) April 2, 2022
The concerns they raise — about eugenics and privacy issues, for example — echo those of self-advocates who critiqued the Spectrum10K study last year, putting that project on hold.
Until genetic research and genetic databases on autism are led and controlled by autistic researchers and the autistic community, we cannot endorse any genetic research or genetic data collection project. (6/6)
— Autistic Self Advocacy Network (@autselfadvocacy) April 2, 2022
Giving autistic people control over genetic databases is the key point, tweeted Mary Doherty, founder of Autistic Doctors International and a consultant anesthetist at Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan, Ireland.
This is the key point ????@Aims2Trials @Spectrum_10K @sbaroncohen @TonyASDorAFC @CALDirector @chchatham @GA4GH https://t.co/ryB2SURdXG
— Mary Doherty ???????? (@AutisticDoctor) April 2, 2022
That’s it for this week’s Community Newsletter! If you have any suggestions for interesting social posts you saw in the autism research sphere, feel free to send an email to [email protected].
Cite this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/DBUO6127
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