PMDSF 2012

Recent articles

Spectrum from The Transmitter.

In Phelan-McDermid, motor neurons show irregularities

Motor neurons derived from individuals with Phelan-McDermid syndrome, a rare autism-related disorder, form abnormal connections with muscle cells. The unpublished research was presented 26 July at a meeting of the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation in Orlando.

By Virginia Hughes
30 July 2012 | 2 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Scientists track adult regression in autism-related syndrome

Several scientists at the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation's annual meeting focused on the wide range of symptoms, including a sudden loss of motor and cognitive skills, that seem to crop up in adults with the disorder.

By Virginia Hughes
26 July 2012 | 5 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Clockwise: lab mouse, zebrafish, octopus, rat pushing a cube, nematodes, fruit fly.

The term ‘model organism’ should be reserved for biological systems

By referring to artificial neural networks as model organisms, we run the risk of distorting funding priorities and disregard the explanatory power of a shared evolutionary history across biological organisms.

By Marc Coutanche
13 November 2026 | 6 min read

New phase of BRAIN Initiative spawns basal ganglia ‘parts list’

With a standardized cell naming system and infrastructure for data collection and analysis, the basal ganglia project sets the stage for a whole-brain primate atlas.

By Claudia López Lloreda
12 November 2026 | 1 min watch
Research image showing genes containing microexons in mice.

Machine-learning model spots autism-linked variants that scramble splicing

The model provides a way to investigate genetic variation in regions of the genome whose functions have been difficult to interpret.

By Giorgia Guglielmi
12 November 2026 | 4 min read