Scientists peel back the layers of genetic complexity in autism, starting with the master regulator CHD8.
 

After eight years of prominence as an autism risk gene, a new analysis significantly brings down CNTNAP2’s importance in the disorder: According to the study, rare mutations in a single copy of the gene are unlikely to cause 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.

Researchers have engineered a fluorescent sensor that irreversibly switches from green to red when a neuron fires, thereby serving as a permanent mark of neuronal activation. They described the unpublished work Monday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Deletion or duplication of 16p11.2, a chromosomal region linked to autism, may trigger symptoms via the interactions of genes both within and outside the region at a key point in development. Researchers presented these preliminary results Sunday at the 2014 American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Researchers have developed a set of software tools called Thunder that can find meaningful patterns in large-scale data on brain activity.

CHD8, a gene that regulates the structure of DNA, is the closest thing so far to an ‘autism gene,’ suggests a study published today in Cell. People with mutations in this gene all have the same cluster of symptoms, including autism.

Cell biologist Nicholas Katsanis explains why zebrafish have been key in studying a chromosomal region linked to autism.

A new imaging technique can capture the activity of every neuron in a zebrafish larva or a roundworm. Researchers described the method, which is at least ten times faster than others, in Nature Methods.

Taking a page from astronomy’s playbook, researchers have developed a way to take dramatically clear pictures of the inner workings of a zebrafish brain.