ASHG 2014

Recent articles

Autism risk region arose during human evolution

Humans may be uniquely prone to rearrangements of chromosome 16 that lead to autism, according to preliminary results presented Saturday at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego.

By Jessica Wright
11 August 2016 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Autism-linked deletion sparks symptoms via many genes

Deletion or duplication of 16p11.2, a chromosomal region linked to autism, may trigger symptoms via the interactions of genes both within and outside the region at a key point in development. Researchers presented these preliminary results Sunday at the 2014 American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego.

By Jessica Wright
23 October 2014 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Massive sequencing database helps interpret mutations’ role

Researchers have analyzed more than 90,000 exomes — the protein-coding regions of the genome — the largest such set yet, they announced Monday at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego. The resource gives scientists an invaluable tool to probe the significance of specific mutations.

By Jessica Wright
23 October 2014 | 5 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Scientists plan to release thousands of whole autism genomes

Researchers have sequenced the whole genomes of 1,000 people with autism and their parents, they announced yesterday at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego. These sequences, and another 1,000 that are on the way, will eventually be freely available online.

By Jessica Wright
21 October 2014 | 3 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Whole-genome sequencing reveals new types of autism risk

Much of the genetic risk for autism may reside in regulatory regions of the genome, hidden from traditional methods of sequence analysis. That's the upshot of preliminary results from three studies presented yesterday at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego.

By Jessica Wright
20 October 2014 | 4 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Null and Noteworthy: Neurons tracking sequences don’t fire in order

Instead, neurons encode the position of sequential items in working memory based on when they fire during ongoing brain wave oscillations—a finding that challenges a long-standing theory.

By Laura Dattaro
30 June 2025 | 4 min read

How to teach this paper: ‘Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia,’ by Liddelow et al. (2017)

Shane Liddelow and his collaborators identified the factors that transform astrocytes from their helpful to harmful form. Their work is a great choice if you want to teach students about glial cell types, cell culture, gene expression or protein measurement.

By Ashley Juavinett
30 June 2025 | 10 min read

Astrocytes sense neuromodulators to orchestrate neuronal activity and shape behavior

Astrocytes serve as crucial mediators of neuromodulatory processes previously attributed to direct communication between neurons, four new studies show.

By Claudia López Lloreda
27 June 2025 | 9 min listen