Skip to main content

Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: synapses

March 2011

New SHANK3 mouse shows autism-like features

by  /  21 March 2011

Researchers have created a mouse carrying a deletion in SHANK3, an autism candidate gene, they reported yesterday in Nature. This is the second model of SHANK3 mutations but shows markedly more behavioral and brain defects compared with the first.

Comments

Genetics: Cell communication pathway linked to autism

by  /  16 March 2011

Mutations in a gene that organizes synapses — the junctions between neurons — may increase the risk of autism, according to a study published in February in Autism Research. The study bolsters evidence linking a pathway involved in cell-to-cell communication to autism.

Comments

Root strategy

by  /  11 March 2011

A new technique for creating stem cells from hair may help researchers understand how neurons and the junction between them form.

Comments

First-ever Phelan-McDermid meeting has its Eureka moments

by  /  10 March 2011

The First International Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Symposium, held last week in New York City, brought together scientists and patient advocates to share insights — including a surprising realization about mice missing the SHANK3 gene.

Comments

New technique creates map of synapses

by  /  9 March 2011

A new technique can pinpoint the precise location of individual proteins at a synapse — the junction between neurons — at high resolution in brain tissue, according to a study published 9 December in Neuron.

Comments

Researchers catalog crucial complex in neurons

by  /  2 March 2011

Researchers have identified nearly 1,500 proteins present in the postsynaptic density — a complex collection of proteins that enables quick and flexible signaling across the brain. The results were published 14 January in Nature Neuroscience.

Comments
February 2011

Molecular mechanisms: Mice model milder form of fragile X

by  /  16 February 2011

A partial mutation that leads to a milder form of fragile X syndrome causes deficits in learning and memory in mice, and alters the connections between their neurons, according to a study published in January in Neurobiology of Disease.

Comments

Clinical research: Study questions symptoms of Angelman syndrome

by  /  8 February 2011

One of the first large-scale, ongoing studies documenting the symptoms of Angelman syndrome — a neurological disorder with features similar to autism — is calling into question some of the so-called characteristic symptoms of the syndrome.

Comments
January 2011

New drug rescues function in fragile X syndrome

by  /  20 January 2011

A new drug appears to relieve symptoms of fragile X syndrome by blocking the over-production of a key protein in a subset of people with the disorder, according to a 6 January study in Science Translational Medicine.

Comments

Molecular mechanisms: Scientists debut fruit fly ‘connectome’

by  /  19 January 2011

Using tricks of genetic engineering, researchers in Taiwan have created the first comprehensive map of the myriad neuronal connections in the fruit fly brain. The findings appeared 11 January in Current Biology.

Comments