Biomarkers for autism, and more

Measure up: A new paper details findings and considers the nuances inherent to the efforts of the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT), a multicenter project to identify useful biomarkers for autism research. Two measures—one derived from electroencephalography and the other from an eye-tracking task—have emerged as robust and reasonably stable over time. The Transmitter reported on these results when they were presented at the INSAR 2026 meeting. Although these biomarkers reliably distinguish autistic people from non-autistic people, they are heterogeneous across individuals and have only modest associations with clinical phenotypes.

Autism research spotted this week:

• “POGZ safeguards neuronal gene chromatin architecture and transcription” bioRxiv

• “Early clinical prediction of neurodevelopmental outcome in KCNQ2-related disorders” medRxiv
• “Maternal genetic liability to autism spectrum disorders and pregnancy outcomes” Archives of Women’s Mental Health
• “Estimation of direct and indirect polygenic effects and gene-environment interactions using polygenic scores in case-parent trio studies” Nature Genetics
• “Kennedy’s quiet hunt for autism culprits stalls as Trump orders baseless changes to childhood shots” KFF Health News
  See also: “Neonatal medical male circumcision and child autism diagnosis” JAMA Pediatrics