This month’s issue of the Going on Trial newsletter explores why it’s more fun to have a beer with friends than by yourself — and how that informs an ongoing clinical trial for autism.

In this edition of Null and Noteworthy, researchers upend early interventions and diagnostic boundaries.

Neuronal alterations outside the brain may help to explain a host of the condition’s characteristic traits, including sensory changes, gut problems and motor differences.

The result raises hopes for an ongoing clinical trial in people — and offers fresh insight into the biology of imprinting and the UBE3A antisense transcript.

The changes may help explain the link between maternal infection and autism, though more research is needed.

Some conditions are too rare for conventional drug trials, leading some scientists to test bespoke treatments in single participants. Gleeson discusses the merits — and limitations — of these tiny trials.

This month’s issue of the Going on Trial newsletter examines personalized therapies for rare conditions, Acadia’s new drug for Rett syndrome and developments in a cord-blood program, among other autism-related drug trial news.

Studies of behavioral treatments for autism are complex and can easily be misunderstood. Here we provide some guidance.

The approach improves the function of SYNGAP1-deficient neurons in vitro, but whether it will work in people remains unclear.

The drug, welcomed by patients, might be just the first of many.