Autism research made U.S. national headlines multiple times this year. The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has raised questions about autism’s prevalence and resurfaced debunked claims about the condition’s links to vaccines and Tylenol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the expanded use of leucovorin as a treatment in people with autism-like traits and cerebral folate deficiency. Meanwhile, funding cuts and staffing changes in government agencies have rocked the field.
The Transmitter has been covering these and other changes, along with scientist reactions, while continuing to highlight new research findings and trends, including the quest to identify subgroups of autism that could redefine the spectrum.
Exclusive: Who is Richard Frye, the neurologist who researches and advocates for leucovorin as an autism treatment?
by Brendan Borrell
Frye has led two placebo-controlled trials of the folate supplement in autistic people; the first was suspended by regulators, and the other has yet to be published.
Exclusive: The 23 studies the FDA based its expanded leucovorin label on
by Claudia López Lloreda
The studies include 46 people, mostly toddlers, who have cerebral folate deficiency due to variants in a folate transporter.
Meet the Autism Data Science Initiative grantees
by Calli McMurray
The awarded projects plan to study gene-and-environment interactions in people, stem cells and organoids, as well as predictors of positive life outcomes in autistic youth and adults.
Going against the gut: Q&A with Kevin Mitchell on the autism-microbiome theory
by Lauren Schenkman
A new review of 15 years of studies on the connection between the microbiome and autism reveals widespread statistical and conceptual errors.
Fact sheet: Autism prevalence
by The Transmitter
A decades’ long increase is the focus of intense scrutiny.
The spectrum goes multidimensional in search of autism subtypes
by Katie Moisse
Grouping people with autism based on shared features, genetics and co-occurring conditions may improve clinical trial outcomes, researchers say.
To accelerate the study of neurodevelopment, we need a transdiagnostic framework
by Kelsie Boulton, Adam Guastella
Our tendency to focus on one condition at a time likely silos expertise and services—and obscures critical connections across diagnostic categories.
