Mice and Men

Every couple of months, it seems, a human genetic study fingers yet another variant that’s associated with autism. It’s only a matter of time before scientists put many of these candidates through the next step in translational research: studying how the variant changes a mouse’s behavior or brain circuitry.This approach assumes, of course, that a given variant would work the same way in mice as it does in humans. But the biology of mice and men may not be as similar as everyone has thought.Read more at...SFARI, May 2009.