The nonprofit Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle plans to make neurons from stem cells derived from people with a number of different disorders. The resource, described 25 September at a conference in New York, will be available to all scientists.

Researchers have induced stem cells to form three-dimensional clumps of neurons that resemble miniature brains, according to a study published 31 July in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mice lacking EN2, an autism-linked gene, have a range of behavioral problems, including social deficits, problems with learning and memory, and motor abnormalities, according to a study published 19 July in PLoS One.

Researchers have developed an index that can predict the age of developing interneurons, which inhibit signals in the brain, according to a study published 24 August in PLoS One. They then used this measurement to show that interneurons are immature in autism brains.

MeCP2, the gene mutated in people with Rett syndrome, may regulate rates of RNA production in developing neurons, according to a study published 3 August in Stem Cells.

Postmortem brains from individuals with autism allow researchers to look at patterns of gene expression in different cell types, and to understand the interplay among neurons and neural circuits, says Dan Arking.

Mutations in AFF2, a gene located on the X chromosome, are about five times as common in men with autism as in controls, according to a study published 10 July in Human Molecular Genetics.

Deleting the Rett syndrome gene from mature mouse brains leads to the same neurological and behavioral symptoms as deleting it during a key developmental stage, according to a study published 18 July in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Seven individuals who have the symptoms of Rett syndrome carry a genetic disruption near, or overlapping with, the FOXG1 gene, according to a report published 27 June in the European Journal of Human Genetics.

A new tool called Gene2FANs creates gene-association networks based on 14 databases that list gene function as well as protein-protein interactions, according to a study published 2 July in BMC Informatics.