Gene expression in the brain reveals surprising similarities and
differences Autism is a very heterogeneous disorder. As the
grand lady of neurology, Dr. Isabelle Rapin liked to emphasize
when training new students “If you have seen one child with
autism, you have seen one child with autism.” This heterogeneity
has made understanding causes and designing effective treatments
more challenging than it would be otherwise. However, a new
study published this week in Nature and supported by Autism
Speaks’ Autism Tissue Program and Autism Genome Project reveals
that the heterogeneity may not be as problematic as it initially
seems. Differences in common molecular pathways appear to
underlie the pathology in the brains of individuals with ASD.
Daniel Geschwind, M.D., Ph.D. (UCLA) launched an ambitious study
to examine not just the variants of genes that may confer risk
for autism, but the interaction with those genes and proteins
working to support brain function. Looking for patterns of
interaction in the brain, Dr