Uc Science Today

In the last couple of years, researchers have come a long way in their understanding of the genetic risk factors for autism – from not knowing how to find autism genes to discovering a variety of mutations linked to the disorder. Psychiatrist Stephen Sanders and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco recently found a molecule responsible for infantile autism. “The hope is that this gene gives us insight of what autism is at a fundamental new logical level. So key things we want to find out are – is there an age at which we could fix this gene problem and see if the problem can go away? Or we have to do it early on?” Basically, the discovery gives scientists hope that autism could possibly be cured not only in children, but in adults, too. “We also want to see where in the brain and when in the brain which cell types are involved to try to work out what autism is and see if this underlying defect can be repaired or at least changed in an adult.“