The Autism Genome Project
08th December from 14:00 to 15:30
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong genetic component to the aetiology. Autism tends to run in families but does not appear to be inherited directly from one generation to the next. Scientists believe that autism is caused by many genes of differing effect size.
The hunt for autism genetics has revealed some success stories. Autism is known to be caused by rare mutations in some genes in a small number of families. However the cause of autism in the majority of individuals is still only beginning to unravel. Recently the discovery of a new type of genetic variation, copy number variation has begun to indicate new genetic mechanisms that may underlie autism. The implications are profound in terms of identifying the underlying pathological processes and also for future screening and diagnosis.