In two articles1,2 that appeared last year in the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Journal of Comparative Neurology, Cyndi Schumann and her colleagues reported that the brain of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shows microscopic changes in the number and structure of neurons located in the amygdala, a brain region […]
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Autism BrainNet is for the living While virtually all of the effort of the Autism BrainNet team is dedicated to spreading the word about the need for postmortem brain donations or making it easy for family members to make a donation of the brain of their loved one, we never lose sight of the fact […]
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The 2019 International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) meeting was held in Montreal, Canada, May 1-4. This annual event hosted a variety of presentations on the latest autism research, including a panel on ‘Postmortem studies: Functional genomic profiling studies of ASD brain.” Chaired by Daniel Geschwind (University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA), the panel highlighted […]
Read More »The DUP15q Alliance and Autism BrainNet co-hosted a live Q&A with Dr. Dan Geschwind on July 9th where he shared with families the latest findings in brain research related to DUP15q and autism.
Read More »Research using postmortem brain tissue has helped to identify changes in gene expression and dysregulated pathways associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Because these studies used a ‘bulk’ approach that averages RNA measures across the brain tissue, it has been difficult to assess differences in gene expression specific to the many different cell types in […]
Read More »Autism BrainNet, a program funded by the New York-based Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI), announces a new collaboration with the Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank (DBCBB). This alliance will allow Canadian individuals and families the opportunity to consider making a postmortem brain donation to help advance research on the causes and treatments of autism spectrum […]
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We are happy to share the Spring 2019 issue of the Autism BrainNet newsletter with you. The Autism BrainNet newsletter frequently summarizes the new science and outreach of this program. Read more here.
Read More »Autism BrainNet Begins New Tissue Distribution – Autism BrainNet was established in 2014 with the goal of collecting postmortem brain tissue to promote research on the causes and potential treatments of autism spectrum (ASD) and other related neurodevelopmental disorders. To date, Autism BrainNet has received 153 brain donations, including 59 from individuals with a confirmed […]
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Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that RNA-editing is dysregulated in the brains of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)1. RNA-editing is a mechanism that occurs inside the cells, whereby the cell’s RNA sequence can be altered, thus changing the information used to build proteins. This process is known to play a […]
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It is well known that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in social interactions. However, the biological causes of these difficulties are not well understood. In the brain, many social and associated behaviors are modulated by the release of a chemical compound called oxytocin1. Researchers have hypothesized that social deficits in ASD may […]
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