GRIN2B

Recent articles

Illustration shows yellow landscape with blue sections and a lot of trains on paths with kids on the trains, going different directions.

Mapping the futures of autistic children

Researchers can roughly project what autistic children's lives will look like years down the road. But how good is their crystal ball — and what are its benefits?

By Elizabeth Svoboda
14 July 2021 | 22 min listen
Tiny cortical organoids in petri dish

Year-old organoids echo genetic shifts seen at birth

3D cultures of human brain cells kept alive for more than a year undergo transitions in gene activity that resemble those seen in newborns, and may be used to study autism genes in postnatal stages of brain development.

By Laura Dattaro
8 March 2021 | 5 min read
Man working from home office.

INSAR 2020, from home

Like so many other events this year, autism’s biggest annual conference — the International Society for Autism Research meeting — was forced to go virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic.

By Spectrum
31 July 2020 | 15 min read
Illustration shows boy with bag of oranges, in landscape of food with DNA trailing around him

Diets may help autistic children with certain genetic profiles

No diet is likely to treat autistic people on a large scale, but diets based on a genetic profile may bring big benefits to a few.

By Martin Breuss, Joseph Gleeson
17 December 2019 | 6 min read

Smart genes; Neanderthal mini-brains; diabetes link and more

Autism and intelligence share genetic variants, researchers grow Neanderthal mini-brains and see overlap with autism, and maternal diabetes is an autism risk factor.

By Emily Willingham
29 June 2018 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Massive sequencing studies reveal key autism genes

Analyzing the sequences of more than 20,000 people, researchers have unearthed the largest and most robust list of autism genes so far, they reported today in Nature.

By Jessica Wright
29 October 2014 | 2 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Study uncovers link between autism risk gene, language

Mutations in TBR1, a candidate gene for autism, compromise its functions and its ability to bind its partners — including FOXP2. Alan Packer explores the gene’s emerging link to language.

By Alan Packer
30 September 2014 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Studies map gene expression across brain development

Now that genetic studies have implicated several hundred genes in autism, researchers are turning their attention to where and when in the healthy young brain these genes are expressed. The first two studies to tackle these questions appear today in Cell.

By Virginia Hughes
21 November 2013 | 7 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Sequencing study uncovers new candidate genes for autism

A new candidate gene for autism, CHD8, may account for up to 0.4 percent of cases of the disorder, according to research published today in Science. CHD8 is one of six genes identified that together may contribute to one percent of autism cases.

By Emily Singer
15 November 2012 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Genetics: Analysis identifies new autism candidate regions

An analysis of large duplications and deletions of DNA has identified new candidate genes for autism in pathways linked to the disorder. The results were published 22 May in Human Molecular Genetics.

By Jessica Wright
19 June 2012 | 2 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Chris Rozell explains how brain stimulation and AI are helping to treat mental disorders

Rozell and his colleagues, using deep brain stimulation and explainable artificial intelligence, have developed tools to help people with treatment-resistant depression.

By Paul Middlebrooks
13 August 2025 | 1 min read
Illustration of a musical staff with notes represented by neurons.

This paper changed my life: Abigail Person on birdsong, feed-forward circuits and convergent computations

By isolating specific neuron types involved in zebra finch birdsong, this 2002 Nature paper from Michael Fee and colleagues revealed elegant neural mechanisms controlling the timing of natural learned behavior.

By Abigail Person
12 August 2025 | 6 min listen
Research image of mouse auditory brainstems.

Prosocial effects of oxytocin are state dependent; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 11 August.

By Jill Adams
12 August 2025 | 2 min read