Rising Star: Sergiu Pasca, scientist at play
Sergiu Pasca was among the first to model autism with neurons from affected individuals, a feat that could reveal the biochemical roots of some forms of autism.
Sergiu Pasca was among the first to model autism with neurons from affected individuals, a feat that could reveal the biochemical roots of some forms of autism.
A new technique allows scientists to turn on the expression of any gene, giving them the unprecedented ability to explore the function of every gene in the human genome.
By analyzing stem cells derived from baby teeth, researchers have tracked a child’s autism to mutations in a gene called TRPC6. The molecular saga highlights a painless way to probe the role some genes play in autism.
For 2014, rather than compile the ‘top tools and techniques’ — a list certain to include CRISPR and other technical tricks detailed in our weekly Toolboxes — we asked researchers to dream up the next big tool in autism research. Their wishes range from protein sequencers to scanners that can capture brain activity during daily activities.
Neurons derived from the skin cells of boys with Rett syndrome can help screen potential treatments for the disorder, suggest unpublished results presented yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Researchers have created a repository of nearly 180 cell lines from people with autism or fragile X syndrome, they reported 1 October in Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
Neurologist Lawrence Reiter is growing neurons from the discarded teeth of children with neurological syndromes. Here he describes how dental pulp may help researchers find the genes and pathways that underlie autism symptoms.
Creating neurons from stem cells in a lab dish is a popular approach for studying developmental disorders such as autism. But how closely these neurons resemble those found in an adult brain has been unclear. Two new methods, described 2 July in Neuron, suggest that these neurons recapitulate the early stages of development.
A Duke University team has won $15 million to explore stem cells from cord blood as a treatment for autism. But experts caution that the trial is premature.
A large international consortium is creating and characterizing thousands of mouse mutants, each of which lacks a single gene in the genome. The first 300 of these mutants are expected to be available later this month.