Germline Exposures
  • Home
  • Expert Q&A
    • Eva Jablonka Q&A
    • Amander Clark Q&A
    • Mirella Meyer-Ficca Q&A
    • Janine LaSalle Q&A
    • Dana Dolinoy Q&A
    • Ben Laufer Q&A
    • Tracy Bale Q&A
    • Susan Murphy Q&A
    • Alycia Halladay Q&A
    • Wendy Chung Q&A
    • Pradeep Bhide Q&A
    • Pat Hunt Q&A
    • Yauk and Marchetti Q&A
    • Emilie Rissman Q&A
    • Carol Kwiatkowski Q&A
    • Linda Birnbaum Q&A
    • Virender Rehan Q&A
    • Carlos Guerrero-Bosagna Q&A
    • Randy Jirtle Q&A
    • Jerry Heindel Q&A
    • Cheryl Walker Q&A
    • Eileen McLaughlin Q&A
    • Carmen Marsit Q&A
    • Marisa Bartolomei Q&A
    • Christopher Gregg Q&A
    • Andrea Baccarelli Q&A
    • David Moore Q&A
    • Patrick Allard Q&A
    • Catherine Dulac Q&A
    • Lucas Argueso Q&A
    • Toshi Shioda Q&A
    • Miklos Toth Q&A
    • Piroska Szabo Q&A
    • Reinisch Q&A
    • Klebanoff Q&A
    • Denis Noble Q&A
  • Germline in the News
  • Science
    • Studies of Interest
    • Escher Prize
    • Grants
    • Smoking Workshop
    • Webinar Series
    • Parent Survey
  • Presentations
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Join our Email List
    • Jill Escher Q&A
  • Blog

Highlights from October 1, 2015 "Early Germline Events in the Heritable Etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders" Webinar

10/3/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
On October 1, 2015, the Escher Fund for Autism, Autism Speaks, and the Autism Science Foundation co-sponsored this inaugural online symposium. Attendees included laypeople and researchers from many different fields, but all interested in the intersection between genes, exposures, and disruptions in the instructions that control normal neurodevelopment.

The webinar explored emerging concepts in basic reproductive biology and also the heritability of ASDs. We know that autism is highly heritable, in the sense that ASD risk is higher among siblings, but it's not shown to be highly "genetic" in the classic sense that these traits or genes are passed from generation to generation.

To probe what might lie underneath these observations, we felt it important to take a multidisciplinary approach, starting with the complicated biology of germ cells themselves. The unique molecular biology and particular vulnerabilities of the early germline may inform the risk of the "de novo" events we see in autism. By de novo we mean genetic and epigenetic changes arising in the parents' egg or sperm, but not seen in the parents themselves.

This effort only scratched the surface of this vast and rapidly developing subject matter, but, we hope it will prompt deeper thinking about autism genetics and inspire further research that may help to connect the dots.

Watch the webinar here.
0 Comments

    Author

    Jill Escher, Escher Fund for Autism, is a California-based science philanthropist and mother of two children with severe autism, focused on the question of how environmentally induced germline disruptions may be contributing to today's epidemics of neurodevelopmental impairment. You can read about her discovery of her intensive prenatal exposure to synthetic hormone drugs here. Jill is also president of Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area.

    Archives

    July 2021
    June 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    February 2018
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Expert Q&A
    • Eva Jablonka Q&A
    • Amander Clark Q&A
    • Mirella Meyer-Ficca Q&A
    • Janine LaSalle Q&A
    • Dana Dolinoy Q&A
    • Ben Laufer Q&A
    • Tracy Bale Q&A
    • Susan Murphy Q&A
    • Alycia Halladay Q&A
    • Wendy Chung Q&A
    • Pradeep Bhide Q&A
    • Pat Hunt Q&A
    • Yauk and Marchetti Q&A
    • Emilie Rissman Q&A
    • Carol Kwiatkowski Q&A
    • Linda Birnbaum Q&A
    • Virender Rehan Q&A
    • Carlos Guerrero-Bosagna Q&A
    • Randy Jirtle Q&A
    • Jerry Heindel Q&A
    • Cheryl Walker Q&A
    • Eileen McLaughlin Q&A
    • Carmen Marsit Q&A
    • Marisa Bartolomei Q&A
    • Christopher Gregg Q&A
    • Andrea Baccarelli Q&A
    • David Moore Q&A
    • Patrick Allard Q&A
    • Catherine Dulac Q&A
    • Lucas Argueso Q&A
    • Toshi Shioda Q&A
    • Miklos Toth Q&A
    • Piroska Szabo Q&A
    • Reinisch Q&A
    • Klebanoff Q&A
    • Denis Noble Q&A
  • Germline in the News
  • Science
    • Studies of Interest
    • Escher Prize
    • Grants
    • Smoking Workshop
    • Webinar Series
    • Parent Survey
  • Presentations
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Join our Email List
    • Jill Escher Q&A
  • Blog