Funded Work
Our funded projects advance discovery across mathematics, the physical and life sciences, neuroscience, and autism.
Results
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To understand the neurobiology behind autism, we need data at the cellular level. -
Benjamin Cheyette and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco have discovered several variations in the sequence of the DIXDC1 gene in individuals with autism, using … -
Understanding how genetic defects that cause autism lead to abnormal neurodevelopment is critical to developing mechanism-based treatments.
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Autism appears to be caused by a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors.
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Understanding the emotional state of a person one is communicating with stands at the center of meaningful and successful human interaction, and speech serves as a conduit for …
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The proposed research takes advantage of the resources available at the University of Oxford in the U.K.
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Autism is diagnosed in boys four times more frequently than in girls. -
A core symptom of autism involves impaired social relationships.
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Genetics is important in the etiology of autism, with many identified candidate genes linking autism to synaptic pathology.
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The development of safe and effective new treatments for social impairments in autism is an important priority.
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Illness or infections during early pregnancy are associated with increased incidence of autism.
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Immune‐related genes and immune responses to environmental stimuli are receiving attention due to their potential involvement in several neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.
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Anatomic and molecular features observed in the brains of individuals with autism suggest that abnormalities in early embryonic development underlie the development of autism.
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Mutations in hundreds of genes may predispose individuals to autism, but no common feature characterizes these genes, little is known about the functions of many of them and …
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Nearly 90 percent of children with autism are estimated to suffer from sensory abnormalities, often hypersensitivities, to stimuli that a neurotypical individual could ignore.
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Biological networks provide a natural framework for integrating the diverse genetic variations associated with complex and multifactorial disorders.
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We are beginning to identify many genetic alterations, environmental factors and developmental processes that contribute to autism, but we do not yet understand how various molecular perturbations add …
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Children with the rare genetic disorder Prader-Willi syndrome have a high rate of autism spectrum disorders, with features including restricted and repetitive, compulsive and self-injurious behaviors.
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Fragile X syndrome is the most common cause of inherited autism and results from loss of function of a single gene: FMR1.
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Efforts to find genetic causes of autism have identified hundreds of rare mutations in individuals with the disorder, and this list is anticipated to grow steadily in the …
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There is growing support for the idea that both genetic and environmental risk factors contribute to autism.
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A major goal of autism research is to understand the relationships among genetic etiology, altered developmental trajectory, aberrant neural circuits and behavioral symptoms characteristic of this disorder.
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Finding a way to diagnose autism early in development is crucial for devising new interventions and understanding its underlying neurobiological causes.
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Evan Eichler and his colleagues at the University of Washington aim to perform the systematic discovery of single nucleotide variations (SNVs), insertions and deletions in DNA (indels) and …
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Autism is a complex disorder of many biological causes that results in characteristic behavioral symptoms.
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A large number of susceptibility genes for autism and schizophrenia have been identified, although the function of many of these risk factors in regulating neuronal development is not …
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The etiology of autism is complex and mysterious.
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Human brain function is the result of a highly organized network of connections linking multiple areas across the brain.
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A rapidly increasing number of genes are implicated in autism.
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Nerve cells communicate with each other via excitatory and inhibitory signals.
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Studies have identified a large number of genes that contribute to autism, and many affect communication between neurons, known as synaptic transmission.
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Autism is characterized by profound social impairments.
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Autism is most likely caused by changes in the development of the cerebral cortex, particularly in neural circuits that process social and cognitive information.
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Comprehensive studies of the human genome using high-speed DNA sequencing have identified new genes whose mutations appear to contribute to autism.
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Individuals with autism frequently display accelerated brain growth during infancy and a larger brain size that is also associated with increased symptom severity.
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A small protein called ubiquitin is added to other proteins to modify their function, causing changes in cellular behavior.
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Our species’ remarkable cognitive, perceptive and motor capabilities depend on the formation, maturation and maintenance of neuronal connectivity in the brain. Miswiring or dysfunction of neural circuits can …
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Advances in structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offer improved ability to detect subtle abnormalities in brain architecture.
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Over the past few years, studies have linked many genes to autism.
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Recent discoveries of contrasting phenotypes caused by deletion vs.