Submission + - Genetic origin found for autism
etherlad writes: "Researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and the Offord Centre for Child Studies in Hamilton teamed with scientists and clinicians from centres elsewhere in Canada and eight other countries to scan the entire human genome for autism-related genes. The consortium of scientists — 137 from 50 centres worldwide that make up the Autism Genome Project — analyzed DNA from about 1,600 families with autistic children to try to zero in on a specific group of brain cells and the genes that affect their development and function. Their analysis led them in part to a region on chromosome 11, as well as to a gene known as neurexin 1, part of a family of genes believed to be important in communication between neurons, particularly during the brain's development."