The long-standing link between maternal infection during pregnancy and having a child with autism may reflect common genetic or environmental factors instead.

Showing an association is not enough to determine causation.

When Van de Water isn’t busy mentoring “the next generation of scientists” in her lab, she finds time to paint, watch HGTV and hang out with her horse, Hank.

Women who carry genetic variants tied to autism have an elevated chance of experiencing pregnancy-related events linked to the condition in their children.

The temporary organ may hold clues about the origins of autism and brain development, Anna Penn says — if only researchers would study it.

Inspired by watching her autistic nephew grow up, Croen has also been an advocate for bolstering research and services for autistic adults.

The fact that autism seems to affect more boys than girls is often attributed to diagnostic gaps, but the skew remains largely unexplained. Some scientists are turning to basic biology for answers.

Model animals don’t develop the usual behavioral and motor problems when reared in an enclosure containing exercise wheels, toys and treats.

Infection during pregnancy can tweak a mouse’s gut microbiome in ways that have lasting effects on her pups’ immune system and increase their chances of gut inflammation, a new study suggests.

Despite scant publicly available data, makers of the ‘exposome’-based method say it could help with diagnosing autism and identifying subtypes.