Children with autism and those who have fathers older than 31 both have lower-than-normal levels of proteins that regulate other genes, according to a study published in February in PLoS One.
It’s too soon to call it a diagnostic test for autism, but an algorithm that detects patterns in brain waves shows promise as one component of a screening battery for the disorder, say researchers familiar with the work.
Over the next five years, dozens of researchers funded by the $40 million ‘NIH Human Connectome Project’ will map the circuits of the human brain, tracing neural pathways and learning how different regions work together in synchrony.
The National Database for Autism Research (NDAR), created by the National Institutes of Health to ease data sharing among autism researchers, has released the first batch of data on more than 10,000 participants enrolled in federally funded autism research studies.
Scientists have pinpointed two major gene networks relevant to autism by analyzing gene expression in brain tissue from individuals with the disorder. Researchers presented the data Sunday at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
Chromosome 15 may harbor one or more risk genes for autism, according to a new study of multigenerational inheritance in Utah. Researchers have gathered data on family pedigrees stretching back as far as nine generations, with up to five family members affected by the disorder.
People with autism may belong to one of four distinct categories based on their medical history, according to a study published in the October Autism Research.
The Simons Simplex Collection (SSC), a database of genetic and clinical information from families that include one child with autism, has gathered data from more than 2,000 different families, researchers report in the October issue of Neuron.
The National Institutes of Health on 30 September launched a public database to catalog a particularly important type of genomic data: so-called ‘structural variations’ — large deletions, duplications and rearrangements of DNA.
A searchable new database will greatly ease the task of comparing results from more than 25 diagnostic tests for autism, by creating clusters of the various symptoms measured.