The Autism Consortium, a group of researchers, clinicians and families dedicated to radically accelerating research and enhancing clinical care for autism, recently announced that it has completed the first genome scan for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) through its Autism Gene Discovery Project and has released the reference data set to a database that autism researchers around the world can use. The scan was conducted using new, high-resolution technology developed by Affymetrix, Santa Clara, Calif., on genetic data from more than 3,000 children with ASD and their families.

“Today’s release of genetic and phenotypic data on autism marks a significant achievement for the autism research community,” says Thomas Insel, PhD, director of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH). “Progress in finding the causes and cures for autism spectrum disorders rests in large part on improving the rapid access and sharing of data and resources.

Along with complementary data generated by Aravinda Chakravarti, PhD, at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and provided to the NIMH, these data provide the most detailed look to date at the genetic variation patterns in families with autism.

Mark Daly, PhD, a consortium member with the Center for Human Genetic Research at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a senior associate member of the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, released genetic data from genome wide scans of DNA variation collected from 3,000 individuals who are either affected by autism spectrum disorders, or are family members of individuals with autism. DNA samples for this scan were provided by the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE), a program of Autism Speaks, dedicated to accelerating the pace of autism research.

“We’re releasing raw genotype data so that other qualified researchers can take a look at it even as we’re still beginning our own analysis,” Daly says. “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. That’s 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,” says Chakravarti, who collaborated with Daly for many years. “We will each look carefully at the other’s findings as we continue to search for definitive information about which genes are important in causing autism spectrum disorders.”

Source: The Autism Consortium