organoid – ASF Weekly Science Podcasts

A landmark study that uses brain organoids from different people with different genes associated with autism showed that the different genes act as roads that go on different journeys to the same destination. This will be an enormously important discovery for identifying targets to treat different autism symptoms across different genetic causes of autism and … Continue reading "Genetic pathw...

The National Institutes of Health just awarded $50million to 13 different research sites to better understand genetic and environmental contributions to an autism diagnosis, or increase in prevalence in autism, as well as environmental factors which improve the quality of life for children and adults with ASD. You can read about them here or listen … Continue reading "Have you heard the good...

There is a cell in the brain called the microglia which has been traditionally overlooked as a target for therapies. New research supported by ASF and @FraxAresearch suggests that altering the function of microglia in the brain may help support the development of healthy and functional connections in the brain that may be impaired in … Continue reading "Microglia as a target for new interven...

Scientists have spent a lot of time trying to understand the biology of autism, unfortunately in the past, scientific studies had everyone with autism lumped together in one group and there are so many differences between people with a diagnosis that any features of the diagnosis itself were hard to detect. In the past, researchers … Continue reading "Biology of profound and non-profound aut...

In honor of the last week of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month, we review two new scientific findings that call for more awareness and action, and less acceptance of the status quo. First: sex differences in autism are not well understood, and as it turns out, the influences on a diagnosis are different. Males have a higher … Continue reading "Research for the end of Autism Action Month"

You heard it in the news this week, and we discuss it on this week’s ASF podcast. Can you make little brains in a dish then make them better by providing them a real structured live neural environment? Can these organoids integrate with a live brain and be functional in vivo? The answers are: yes! … Continue reading "Genetic confounding plus organoids"