Rodent Roundup

Arguably the biggest autism news to come out of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in November was the debut of seven rat models of the disorder.Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering (SAGE) Labs, based in St. Louis, Missouri, announced at the time that it had made rats each missing one of seven autism-related genes: CACNA1C, FMR1, MeCP2, NLGN3, NRXN1, PTEN and mGluR5.Last week, the company announced a new partnership with the autism science and advocacy organization Autism Speaks that will add three more models to the list. Two of these rats will lack the autism-linked genes CNTNAP2 and MET, respectively, and are slated for release in 2013. The third is as yet undecided.Read more at...SFARI, August 2012.