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  • News
    • Autism Speaks Canada's statement about the Alek Minassian case and its misrepresentation of autism
    • ASC, CASDA, and MacART come together to present the Pandemic Canadian Autism Needs Assessment Survey Report
    • SickKids researchers find new genes and variations linked to autism using Autism Speaks' MSSNG data
    • Toys R Us Canada in partnership with Autism Speaks Canada is proud to launch discounted play packs
    • Olivier, Our Dog Walk Ambassador Is in the News
    • Covid-19, We Are in This Together
    • Advocates and researchers discuss solutions to reduce autism health care disparities
    • Justin Trudeau Announces Endorsement for Development of a National Autism Strategy
    • Join Us in Creating a Brighter Life on the Spectrum
    • Media Advisory: Trudeau Is Only Major Party Leader Not Committed To A National Autism Strategy
    • Large family-based study finds 80 percent of autism risk is from inherited genes
    • Autism Speaks Canada is excited to announce their new partnership with MKM group and Shattered Dreams Esports
    • Autism Speaks awards more than $4.7 million for autism research
    • Autism Speaks Canada is excited to announce their new partnership with bubly sparkling water beverage
    • Six Autism Speaks studies on 2018 list of top advances in autism
    • Senator Munson's Visit to McMaster May 21, 2019
    • Community Connections Inspire Samsung Canada and Autism Speaks Canada
    • Autism Speaks Canada's annual Walk comes to Waterloo this Sunday
    • Autism Speaks Canada's annual Walk comes to Toronto
    • Autism Speaks' MSSNG project reaches 10,000-genome milestone
    • The Canada Council for the Arts Reveals the 2019 Killam Program Winners
    • Light It up Blue With Autism Speaks Canada
    • Response to the Ontario Autism Program (OAP)
    • DNAstack and Autism Speaks® Announce Collaboration to Accelerate Scientific Discovery on One of the World's Largest Autism Genome Databases
    • Autism Speaks launches $1.5 million funding opportunity for treatment studies
    • Whole genome sequencing reveals new type of genetic influence on autism
    • Understanding the 2018 National Autism Spectrum Disorder Surveillance System (NASS) Report
    • Autism Speaks releases new strategic plan for science
    • World's largest autism genome databank adds more than 2,000 sequences
    • Support Rooted in Desire to Improve Lives
    • Samsung Canada, Silken Laumann and Autism Speaks Canada Invite Canadians to Learn the Love Spectrum
    • Your ATN@Work: Treating anxiety in children and teens with autism
    • Your ATN@Work: Recognizing anxiety in children and teens with autism
    • Expanding Service Options for Children and Youth with Autism
    • Tracing autism's trajectories could help explain its diversity
    • Gathering MSSNG Insights on Autism
    • Thomas Frazier to join Autism Speaks as Chief Science Officer
    • Study Aims to Crack Autism Code
    • Ontario Ombudsman has released the report, Nowhere to Turn
    • The Autism World: Choosing In
    • The Government of Canada wants your input as they develop accessibility legislation
    • The University of Windsor is looking for fathers across Canada
    • Autism Speaks MSSNG study expands understanding of autism's complex genetics.
    • Choices Markets to Host Fundraiser to Raise Awareness and Funds for Autism Speaks Canada
    • The Sinneave Family Foundation and Autism Speaks Canada Partner With Organizations Across Canada to Improve Employment Futures for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder
    • Ontario Providing More Supports For Children With Autism
    • Autism Speaks ATN/AIR-P researchers present studies at IMFAR
    • More than 5,000 whole genome sequences now available for research into autism subtypes and personalized treatments
    • Spokesperson for the Minister answers FAQ's regarding Ontario Autism Program
    • Giving children roots and wings: the struggle to understand autism.

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Large family-based study finds 80 percent of autism risk is from inherited genes

what causes autism?

A new study looking at autism in 5 countries found that 80 percent of autism risk can be traced to inherited genes rather than environmental factors and random mutations.

The study, published July 18 in JAMA Psychiatry, analyzed data of nearly 2 million people across Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Israel, and Western Australia. It is the largest family-based genetic autism study to date, including children with autism, their siblings and cousins, as well as parents and their siblings.

“We expanded on previous results by including more family members and data from countries that vary widely in their autism health systems,” said Joseph Buxbaum, M.D., one of the study authors and professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center. “We found that the strongest contributors to risk of autism are from inherited genes. Spontaneous genetic changes and other factors that we could not estimate are additional contributors to risk of autism.”

In addition, the study found very little or no risk resulting from maternal effects – such as chronic health conditions that are consistent across all of a woman’s pregnancies. But for maternal factors that might occur in only one pregnancy, the study’s analysis can’t separate out those risks.

While the study’s authors concluded that maternal effects create no risk for autism, researchers who study these effects say this is a complicated issue.

“The maternal effects aspect of the paper is a clever analytic approach. However, it is based on relatively small numbers of maternally linked cousin pairs with autism, and thus shouldn’t be taken as a definitive answer. Any interaction between inherited gene effects and environments are difficult to model in this approach,” said Daniele Fallin, Ph.D., an epidemiologist and chair of the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. “While the results confirm the very important role of inherited genes in autism risk, it is a mistake to conclude that they rule out an important role for environmental risk or maternal effects.”

The study also showed the wide range in heritability data that results from each country’s culture around autism. In Western Australia, the data was on the lower end, while most of the Nordic countries reported higher heritability. If a country tends to diagnose autism less frequently, perhaps due to cultural differences or how and when providers screen for autism, the heritability is likely also to show up as a lower number.

“It is not easy to estimate the contribution of random genetic variation from this analysis, but understanding the power of genetic influences is critical to leading us toward personalized treatments and solutions in the future,” said Autism Speaks Chief Science Officer Thomas Frazier, Ph.D. “We encourage everyone with an autism diagnosis to speak with their provider about genetic testing and participate in genetics research when they can.”

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