CHD8, a gene that has emerged as one of the strongest risk factors for autism, regulates the expression of more than half of a set of ‘high-confidence’ risk genes for the disorder. The unpublished data were presented Saturday at the 2014 International Meeting for Autism Research in Atlanta.

Injecting antibodies taken from mothers of children with autism directly into the brains of fetal mice results in autism-like behaviors in the mice in adulthood, according to a study published 5 March in Behavioural Brain Research.

Researchers should investigate a broad spectrum of human- and animal-derived tissues to fully capture the complexity of autism, say Michael Talkowski and James Gusella.

Researchers have created the first genetic monkey model of autism, they reported 6 March in Cell Stem Cell. The female monkey has a mutated version of the MeCP2 gene that causes Rett syndrome.

Support cells generated from people with Rett syndrome release molecules that alter the shape and function of neurons, according to a study published 27 February in Human Molecular Genetics.

Researchers have developed a method to isolate a single mutant cell from thousands of others, they reported in the March issue of Nature Methods.

Misplaced pieces of RNA bind and disable the gene responsible for fragile X syndrome, leading to the disorder, according to a study published 28 February in Science.

A commercially available line of neurons generated from induced stem cells would serve as a good control for autism research, according to a study published 16 January in Psychopharmacology.

MeCP2, the protein mutated in Rett syndrome, is normally responsible for boosting the expression of a large number of genes. This finding, published 3 October in Cell Stem Cell, may explain why growth factors that promote protein production are able to reverse features of the syndrome in mice.

A new stem-cell model of Phelan-McDermid syndrome points to a possible treatment for the rare autism-related disorder, according to a study published in Nature.