Genetics and Health

Consortium to Investigate Autism Susceptibility Genes

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on October 22nd, 2005

A consortium of five institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and three private autism organizations* has been formed to study the genetic basis of autism. While autism is believed to be caused by an interaction between genes and environment, as much as 90 percent of the variance in autism spectrum disorder may be due to hereditary factors. A better understanding of the genes that contribute to autism will help characterize the disorder more precisely as well as lead to targeted therapies and interventions.

Three teams of investigators have been awarded grants thus far:

• A three-site collaborative project, involving Rutgers University, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and University of Iowa, for a project entitled Identification and Functional Assessment of Autism Susceptibility Genes with investigators Linda Brzustowicz, M.D., James Millonig, Ph.D., and Veronica Vieland, Ph.D., respectively.
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for a project entitled, Determining the Genetic Basis of Autism by High-Resolution Analysis of Copy Number, directed by Jonathan Sebat, Ph.D.
• Emory University, for a project entitled, Identifying Autism Susceptibility Genes by High-Throughput Chip Resequencing, directed by Michael Zwick, Ph.D.

Medical News Today, October 21, 2005

*The participating NIH institutes are The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The voluntary organizations contributing funds are Cure Autism Now (CAN), National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR), and the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC).

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POSTED IN: Genetics of Disease