Autism Gene ID'd

A new study released in the scientific journal Nature has identified several genes that increases an individual's risk for autism or autism spectrum disorders.  Basically, these genes have certain abnormalities in which pieces of the DNA are completely missing or repeated several times.  This is known as a copy number variation. Scientists hope that the developments could lead to the creation of a diagnostic test, which could help individuals get a diagnosis and begin therapy quicker.



Looking to read more?

• Functional impact of global rare copy number variation in autism spectrum disorders (the study)
• CNN's Paging Dr. Gupta blog: New autism genes found
• Nature's Blog, The Great Beyond: Rare genetic variants linked to autism
• Bloomberg Businessweek's HealthDay: Gene copy aberrations may help drive autism