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This is the final paragraph of an article in the July 6th Scotland on Sunday about 20-year-old Dale Gardner, who was severely autistic as a child, and his mother, Nuala Gardner.
His mother is bursting with pride. When she first found out about Dale, part of her grieving process was to wonder if it would have […]
Rett Syndrome has been linked to mutations in the MeCP2 gene; Rett Syndrome causes impairments in language and cognitive and fine motor skills and seizures; it is, according to the International Rett Syndrome Foundation, often misdiagnosed as autism. A recent study published in the June 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of […]
I suppose it’s not surprising that the story of an autistic toddler and his mother being removed from an airplane got so much attention last week. Airplane is travel is neither so friendly nor so fun (or affordable) for anyone these days. The story of Jarret Farrell really home with me because, a couple of […]
The latest issue of Nature Genetics opens with an editorial entitled All in the mind about recent discoveries of de novo mutations in some cases of autism and schizophrenia. “Exceptional rigor and caution” are called for in the search for “causative variants”:
If many genes can be perturbed to produce a related set of psychiatric phenotypes, […]
A new study suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs)—a type of RNA (ribonucleic action), which is involved in protein synthesis—-may play a role in the development of autism. miRNAs are “abundant in the brain” and have a role in neurological diseases such as Tourette’s sydrome and Fragile X syndrome. Noting that autism is a “genetically complex disease,” […]
Over at Adaptive Complexity is a quite comprehensive post on progress in the hunt for autism genes by Michael White, a biochemist and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics and the Center for Genome Sciences at the Washington University School of Medicine. Starting by noting the too-oft heard link between autism and […]
A letter abstract in the June 22nd Nature Medicine is entitled Reversal of learning deficits in a Tsc2+/- mouse model of tuberous sclerosis. Tuberous sclerosis is a rare genetic disease that affects the central nervous system and causes benign tumors to grow on the brain, kidneys, heart, eyes, lungs, and skin. Those with TSC […]
While the scientific evidence refutes a link between autism and vaccines, parents of young children can’t seem to stop worrying about this and (as a June 18th CNN story reports) are wondering: Should they vaccinate their baby? Should they space out the vaccines and have a child receive their immunizations for measles, mumps and rubella […]
The earlier part of this year saw the publication of a number of studies about the genetics of autism, with one scientist speculating about a unified theory of autism.
The July 2008 Nature Genetics has a review of psychiatric genetics that considers progress and controversy. Here is the abstract:
Several psychiatric disorders — such as bipolar disorder, […]
Having ADHD might be beneficial to a group of nomads in Kenya, yesterday’s Science Daily reports. Nomadic tribesmen who have an ADHD-variant of the gene DRD4 fare better have better health than those without it, but when they settle, they become malnourished. DRD4 codes for a receptor for dopamine; according to Dan Eisenberg, an anthropology […]
Autism mother gets on her soapbox.
Written by Kristina Chew, PhD [email] for b5media.
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