Researchers have mined the medical records of more than 100 million people and found close to 3,000 associations between single-gene diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, and complex genetic disorders such as autism. The results were published 26 September in Cell.

A new analysis strikes down a widely reported study from last year, which claimed that a panel of 237 genetic markers predicts autism.

A new method of genetic analysis allows researchers to identify regions that are identical on both copies of a chromosome, according to a study published 20 September in Molecular Cytogenetics.

Some children with autism and hyperactivity have a genetic intolerance to methylphenidate (Ritalin), the drug commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, reports a new study published 16 July in Pharmacogenomics.

Two university-based clinics have debuted large programs that rely on sequencing to diagnose genetic disorders, including developmental disorders such as autism.

A new statistical method for linking genes to a disorder analyzes both rare and common variants of a gene at the same time, according to a study published 14 May in the American Journal of Human Genetics. This makes it possible to confirm associations that other techniques might overlook.

It is possible to discover relationships between autism genes simply by reanalyzing existing datasets, says Alan Packer.

Children with autism have more copies of some chromosomal regions than controls do, according to a study published 19 April in Human Molecular Genetics. This is true even after excluding the regions that are the most likely to lead to autism.

Simon Fisher made headlines in 2001 for finding the first gene related to language. He has been following FOXP2 ever since, and has found that it is important in autism and other psychiatric disorders.

A genetic test purported to detect children with autism may instead be highlighting ancestry differences, says T. Grant Belgard.