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Three new studies, all with the common element of inclusion of ASF postdoctoral fellowships as authors, appeared this week using whole genome sequencing technologies to look at new areas of the genome. Not just new genes, but totally unexplored ares of DNA that were only possible to examine through these newer technologies. They are called regulatory non-coding regions, because they regulate genes known to be associated with autism – but don’t code for any proteins. Interestingly enough, they are carried by the unaffected father. As one of the authors on the studies and guest on this podcast, William Brandler explains, they regulate genes, they don’t cause autism, otherwise the non-affected fathers would not be non-affected. Another ASF fellow, Donna Werling, published an analysis which called for careful consideration of the statistics around these findings. After all, this is a relatively unexplored territory.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29674594
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29703944
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29700473