Speaker: Elise Robinson, Ph.D.
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Associate Member, Broad Institute
Date: November 14, 2018
Talk title: Autism heterogeneity: genetic insights and next steps.
Abstract: ASD researchers have long been aware that two people with a diagnosis of autism can be as different from one another as two people in any classroom or neighborhood. Translating that awareness into the design of research studies, however, has often presented a challenge. Over the last five years, genetic studies have produced a wealth of unambiguous associations to ASD risk, and taught us that genetic heterogeneity in ASD is patterned. Dr. Robinson will provide an introduction to ASD genetics and discuss how knowledge of genetic heterogeneity can inform research targeting ASD biology.