New Theory about Autism Roots
It appears that some boys have as much as a 50 percent risk of developing the mysterious disorder
By Nikhil Swaminathan


: Mol Psychiatry. 2007 May;12(5):419-421.Paternal age and autism are associated in a family-based sample.Cantor RM, Yoon JL, Furr J, Lajonchere CM.
[1] 1Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA [2] 2Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA [3] 3AGRE Consortium, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

PMID: 17453057 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]


The paternal age distribution of the AGRE fathers, whose first child is autistic differs significantly from that of the 'control' sample (P=0.005). A 2 goodness-of-fit test with 2 degrees of freedom was conducted using percents in the 'control' group age categories to calculate the expected values in the AGRE sample. The shift toward higher paternal ages in those with an affected first-born is seen most dramatically in the group of AGRE fathers who are 30–39 years inclusive, which is 54.7% of the distribution compared with the 41.9 % that is expected. We interpret this shifted age distribution to provide support for the recently reported finding by Reichenberg and co-workers that autism risk is associated with advancing paternal age.





A hedge-fund titan stirs up research into autism
Thursday, December 15, 2005By Antonio Regalado, The Wall Street Journal
When their daughter Audrey was just a few months old, Jim and Marilyn Simons noticed that she wasn't making eye contact. It wasn't until the girl was 6 years old that she was diagnosed with autism. Ms. Simons scoured records from her pregnancy. Had something gone wrong? What caused her condition?
In their quest for answers, the Simonses aren't just another family seeking comfort. Audrey's father, top mathematician James H. Simons, runs Renaissance Technologies Corp., one of the world's most successful hedge funds. With little notice, the family's charitable foundation has committed $38 million to find the causes of autism. The money manager says he and his wife will spend $100 million more in what is rapidly becoming the largest private investment in the field.
The Simonses' philanthropy is stirring up the small community of autism researchers and advocates. Using his scientific background, Mr. Simons, 67, personally reviews grant applications. When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology asked him for money for brain research, he demanded that the project focus on autism and include scientists he liked. He has provided his family's DNA for study, pitched in to help solve research problems and is pushing scientists to probe a genetically based explanation for the disease.