Harvard researchers used lab-grown clumps of neurons called organoids to reveal how three genes linked to autism affect the timing of brain development.
. They created genetically modified organoids of the human cerebral cortex, each with a mutation in one of three genes thought to be linked to autism.brain structure and behavior
Straightaway, Arlotta and her colleagues noticed something different. The timing of cell development in the modified organoids seemed to be off compared to those with the “normal” version of the gene. “We had a eureka moment when we did the first gene and found that there were two populations of neurons that were developing with the wrong timing—too fast or slow compared to the rest of the cell,” Arlotta says.
After working on CHD8, Arlotta and her team grew two more types of organoids, this time focussing on two other genes that had been linked to the condition: ARID1B and SUV420H1. Although these genes do different things, they had what Arlotta calls a “convergent” effect on brain development—like CHD8, mutations in these genes also changed the timing of cell development in the organoids, and affected the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons.
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