When Biel, Jaume Ping and Constanza Lucero’s son, was a toddler, he used to fall over a lot and had trouble navigating environments. Soon after being diagnosed with low vision, the parents founded Biel Glasses – a company that makes smart glasses to improve mobility and personal autonomy for t…

The post Spotted around the web: Regulating prenatal tests, diversity in scientific publishing, autistic journalists appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

An algorithm that scans electronic health records and alerts doctors to a patient’s eligibility for SPARK, a large genetic study of autism, led to a fourfold increase in enrollment in the project, according to the lead investigator of a new study. The likelihood of enrollment was particularly elevat…

A new mouse model may accelerate the discovery of gene-activating therapies to treat Rett syndrome, a condition related to autism, its makers say. Rett syndrome arises from mutations in MECP2, a gene on the X chromosome. Such mutations are usually fatal shortly after birth in boys, who have only one…

This week’s blog comes from Parenting with ABA by Leanne Page. Do you know what one of my favorite parenting tools is? You guessed positive reinforcement, didn’t you? Close- but today I’m going with HUMOR! When things are tense- can we help ourselves and our kids to crack a smile …

In January 2020, during her fifth month of pregnancy, Erin Knipe came down with a sore throat, ear infection and relentless cough. She was exhausted: She had made it through the morning sickness of her first trimester only be to be knocked out by what seemed like a bad cold. When Knipe wasn’t gettin…

The ‘opto’ in optogenetics — the powerful method some autism researchers use to control neurons in mice and other animals — comes from the Greek optós, meaning visible. It’s a nod to the blue light used to switch on select neurons. A new technique can do the same, albeit with something invisible: so…

Hello, and welcome to Spectrum Launch — the newsletter for early-career autism researchers. This month, we have a Q&A with Andrew Jaffe, head of data sciences at Neumora Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech firm that develops treatments for brain conditions. Before joining Neumora in Sept…

A study published last month in the British Journal of Psychiatry claimed that people who die by suicide have an elevated likelihood of being autistic or having undiagnosed autism, based on an analysis of coroner records and family interviews. Spectrum asked statistics expert Kristin Sainani for her…

Autistic children who show language regression — a loss of language skills in early childhood — do not necessarily have communication problems later on, a new study finds. In fact, in terms of both speaking and understanding words, these children follow the same overall developmental trajectory as a…

Last week’s news involved mice playing a crucial role in paving a path towards curing paralysis. This week’s MVP is sheep! You read that right – a team of Australian researchers at The University of Sydney implanted bionic eyes in a flock of sheep that resulted in exceptionally sharp eyesight.…

Social media in the autism space this week served up a helpful cheat sheet of standout research tweets to catch up on — plus an easier way to consume preprints. “Mixtures matter,” tweeted Giuseppe Testa, professor of molecular biology at Università Statale in Milan, Italy, about the effects of endoc…

The post Spotted around the web: Zebrafish startle, histone variants, autism history museum appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

About 15 years ago, Ashura Buckley made an observation that intrigued her. She was monitoring the overnight brain activity of children with autism or developmental delay using electroencephalography (EEG) and noticed that their brain wave patterns were strikingly different from those of their neurot…