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Genes, environment and heritability: why does it matter?

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This week a 5 country collaboration including the largest number of people EVER revealed 80% of the causes of autism are heritable. This is incredibly important to understand autism and move forward with research that matters to families.  What it did not do was calculate the role of gene x environment interactions which seems to be the forgotten stepchild of autism research.  This week’s #ASFpodcast explains why it is important to understand the heritability while at the same time study the combined effects of genetic and environmental factors.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2737582?guestAccessKey=d82b0145-f179-48bd-91bb-f77865732c3c&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=071719 

 

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Understanding the brains of people with autism with Daniel Geschwind, MD, PhD

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This week’s ASF podcast is a special treat – Dr. Daniel Geschwind from UCLA provides an understanding of the brains of people with autism, focusing on those with a mutation in chromosome 15.  He goes over how they are similar and different (teaser: they are more similar) and answers questions from families about how this research is important for helping improve the lives of people across the spectrum.

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If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere: preparing early interventions for the community

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This week two groups of heroes of autism research published studies that may not be the type of major breakthrough that the media reports on, but they are more important to families:  These studies help translate what works in the research clinic into the community.  Specifically, is it even possible, how, and what do families need to know when they receive an intervention that has yet to be “field tested”.  This is a whole field of research called implementation science, and it deals with how scientists and community services implement what is learned in research settings into real world settings.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31206690 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31241851