Latest News

Autism Decoder App Released

Every four hours, scientists publish a research paper about autism, but how can this enormous volume of research help you? We have an app for that. Brought to you by a team of interdisciplinary scientists, the Autism Decoder app is a new mobile interface that describes the latest autism research findings in easy-to-understand writing. You can flip through
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STX1A and Asperger syndrome replication study published

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are a group of conditions characterized by difficulties in communication and social interaction, alongside unusually narrow interests and repetitive, stereotyped behaviour. Genetic association and expression studies have suggested an important role for the GABAergic circuits in ASC. Syntaxin 1A (STX1A) encodes a protein involved in regulation of serotonergic and GABAergic systems
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Gene Scoring Module Published

In collaboration with the Simons Foundation, scientists at MindSpec co-authored an article in Molecular Autism describing the new Gene Scoring module of SFARI Gene. SFARI Gene is the name by which the Simons Foundation licenses MindSpec’s Autism Database (AutDB), the first genetic database for autism.  First released in 2007, AutDB catalogs all known genetic variants
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Gene Co-expression Analysis Published

In collaboration with the Mitra Lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, MindSpec published an original research article in PLoS Computational Biology. Their study identified enriched expression of autism risk genes within the cerebellum, a brain region important for balance and movement.  They first utilized the Allen Brain Atlas to analyze co-expression of 3000 genes throughout
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CNV Prioritization Published

MindSpec proudly announces publication of an original research article in PLoS One, prioritizing copy number variants (CNVs) linked to autism. The genome-wide list of CNVs was compiled from the autism database AutDB (http://autism.mindspec.org/autdb/Welcome.do), licensed to the Simons Foundation as SFARI Gene.  As an integrated, modular genetic database for autism, AutDB curates all CNVs currently linked
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