Dried spots of blood taken from infants at birth can help clinicians screen for fragile X syndrome in countries with limited resources, according to a study published 11 October in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis plans to close its neuroscience research facility in Switzerland, but research on fragile X drugs will continue.

A drug that blocks a type of receptor at the junctions between neurons reverses repetitive behaviors in a mouse model of autism, according to a new study.

Some forms of autism are caused by too many proteins at the synapse, the junction between neurons, whereas other forms result from too few, according to a study published 23 November in Nature.

Researchers have derived neurons from stem cells to investigate mutations that lead to Rett and fragile X syndromes.

Neurons from mice that model fragile X syndrome may fire signals more readily than neurons from controls, according to a study published 5 October in The Journal of Neuroscience. The results suggest a cause for the high incidence of seizures in individuals with the syndrome.

A large scientific research company debuted seven new rat models of autism Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C. Two of the models, one lacking FMR1 and the other lacking NLGN3, show some unexpected new characteristics.

A protein involved in the cascade of interactions at the junctions between neurons points to a potential therapy for fragile X syndrome, according to unpublished data presented at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The fragile X protein FMRP helps make proteins at the synapse, the junction between neurons, even when the genetic instructions for doing so are located far away in the nucleus, says Kimberly Huber.

Wenbao Gan describes the technique he has devised to track the development of neurons in live mouse brains.