Twin studies, Autism Risk, Epigenetic Molecular Trails in Utero

Researchers are keen to identify environmental causes of autism, using epigenetics. Twin studies in particular offer unique opportunities for clever researchers. The eye opening results of the California Autism Twins Study (CATS) study, were that autism had a ~60% genetics basis and a ~40% environmental basis. This news has facilitated the idea that there is an epigenetic molecular trail to follow, to identify environmental causes of autism. One of those environmental factors correlating to autism risk is low birth weight. Yes, yes, well that seems to makes sense when you think of it in the context of premature births. But here again, twin studies show us further complexity. (As a side bar check out this blog post from Genomes Unzipped,  … Continue reading →