Autism Consortium releases data on genes involved in autism to researchers...(celerating the pace of autism research. ...),Health

Were releasing raw genotype data so that other qualified researchers can take a look at it even as were still beginning our own analysis, Daly said. Autism Spectrum Disorders are extremely complex and only through collaboration with researchers with many specialized areas of expertise will we gain an understanding of what makes some children susceptible. Thats why we have been committed to providing the data to the research community as fast as we can. The new data will be deposited in the gene bank maintained by AGRE, which, in turn, will make the data available to qualified researchers.

It is really something of a landmark to have both data from his laboratory and mine available to autism researchers at virtually the same time, said Dr. Chakravarti, who collaborated with Dr. Daly for many years. We will each look carefully at the others findings as we continue to search for definitive information about which genes are important in causing autism spectrum disorders.

The prepublication release of such a significant trove of data is a dramatic departure from the traditional less open culture of research science and a landmark achievement for the Consortium and its Autism Gene Discovery Project, the first comprehensive genetic association study to examine the entire human genome related to autism.

The number of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders has significantly increased in recent years. Although there is some uncertainty about the role that better diagnosis, greater recognition of the disorders, and biological and environmental factors play; there is growing agreement in the research community that genes have a significant role in autism spectrum disorders. The release of the data from this screen is a significant step toward identifying the genes involved in ASD.

Researchers in the Autism Gene Discovery Project conducted the genome wide study using Gen
'/>"/>