Geneticists join forces for autism sequencing push Researchers
have launched an effort to yoke together disparate gene
sequencing projects in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., aiming to
double the number of known autism-related genes in the next
three to four years. The effort, spearheaded by the Autism
Sequencing Consortium (ASC), a loose organization of more than
20 independent research groups, plans to pull together 20,000
exome sequences — the protein-coding parts of the genome — that
have either already been completed or are under way at various
institutions. It also aims to sequence another 10,000 exomes.
Mining these sequences should yield 50 to 100 novel autism risk
genes, says Joseph Buxbaum, ASC’s co-director and director of
the Seaver Autism Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in
New York City. A flurry of recent studies in autism genetics
points to a model in which many rare, spontaneous — or de novo —
mutations underlie the disease, and researchers increasingly
believe they will need tens of th