study to follow families

A network of autism researchers, the Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation, (EARLI) will be following 1200 pregnant women who already have a child diagnosed with autism. The good news about this study is that not only will they be looking closely at genetics and biomarkers for risk factors, but also possible environmental causes. A number of studies have been or are being done on genetics, but not enough focus on environmental triggers. That makes this new study most encouraging, though results are far off yet. Two California centers, the UC Davis MIND Institute and Kaiser Permanente of Northern California will be of the four centers involved with this study. You can read more at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153229.php