A freezer malfunction that damaged a third of the largest collection of autism brain tissue points to the dire need for more donations, a better system for eliciting them, and a coordinated effort for storing and distributing tissue.
Postmortem brain tissue from people with autism shows differences in the expression of genes involved in a number of molecular pathways, including those that control cortical patterning, programmed cell death and differentiation, according to research published last month in PLoS Genetics.
What makes humans so different from our primate cousins? The answer may lie in unique patterns of gene expression soon after birth, primarily in genes required to form the junctions between neurons.
A mathematical approach called ‘NEW biology,’ or network-enabled wisdom biology, aims to solve one of the biggest problems in disease research: isolating the key factors that drive diseases from a glut of information.
A large, centralized bank of brain tissue from young people could greatly accelerate autism research. Thanks to a growing interest from nonprofit organizations, the idea is finally gaining momentum.
Two networks of genes are abnormally expressed in the brains of people with autism, according to a study published today in Nature.
Family support groups may be the best messengers to convey the urgent need for brain tissue in autism research, say scientists struggling with inadequate resources.
The first study to look at mitochondria — the powerhouses of the cell — in postmortem brain tissue taken from children with autism has found significant abnormalities in their function in some regions of the brain.
The brains of people with autism show high levels of inflammation compared with controls, suggests a study of postmortem brain tissue from 11 individuals with autism, presented at a poster session Monday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.
Brain tissue from individuals with autism is rare, to say the least: of the 30,000 samples in the National Institutes of Healthʼs Brain and Tissue Bank for Developmental Disorders, for instance, only 30 are from individuals diagnosed with autism.