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Christopher Walsh discusses autism research in Middle Eastern families

A recent Children's Hospital Boston study in Science, involving 88 large Middle Eastern families, has implicated a half-dozen new genes in autism. The findings strengthen the idea that autism stems from disruptions in the brain's ability to refine its connections in response to input from the environment. They have also raised great hope, since some of the affected genes weren't actually damaged or deleted, but only prevented from turning on.

Neurogeneticist Christopher Walsh, MD, PhD, Chief of Genetics at Children?s Hospital Boston, led the interdisciplinary research team, which included clinical collaborators in Turkey, Dubai, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In all, they identified five chromosome deletions affecting at least six identifiable genes, one of which was also mutated in some European and American children with autism. When Walsh compared notes with Michael Greenberg, PhD, director of Children's Neurobiology Program, it turned out that Greenberg's lab had found three of the genes to be part of a molecular network that orchestrates the refinement of brain connections.

Here, Walsh discusses the study, what it means in light of other recent genetic discoveries, and the concept of multiple "autisms" which may benefit from different treatment approaches.

For more, visit Children's News Room or listen to a podcast from Science.

1. Why has it been so hard to identify genetic causes of autism? [1:06] View clip...

2. Why did you study these Middle Eastern families? [1:02] View clip...

3. Why are big families so helpful? [1:04] View clip...

4. What do the newly identified genes tell us about autism's causes? [0:44]
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5. Coupling this finding with other genetic discoveries, what have we learned about autism? [1:45] View clip...

6. So someday, there might be autism A, B and C that would be considered separate diseases? [1:14] View clip...