![Azra Jaferi headshot](https://simonsfoundation.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18151738/photo_Azra-Jaferi-e1650295072823.jpg?auto=format&w=155&h=155&fit=crop&crop=faces&q=90)
![Azra Jaferi headshot](https://simonsfoundation.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18151738/photo_Azra-Jaferi-e1650295072823.jpg?auto=format&w=155&h=155&fit=crop&crop=faces&q=90)
![Gender equality concept. Male and female gender icons against pink background. 3D rendering](https://simonsfoundation.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/17153809/iStock-1469678026.jpg?auto=format&q=90&fit=crop&w=105&h=105)
On January 8–9, 2024, SFARI welcomed researchers to its second annual meeting of the SFARI Sex Differences Collaboration (SSDC).
![Image from research by Juergen Knoblich.](https://simonsfoundation.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/09145329/Knoblich_image-scaled.jpeg?auto=format&q=90&fit=crop&w=105&h=105)
Two studies by different research groups — one led by Flora Vaccarino and the other by Juergen Knoblich — used brain organoids derived from pluripotent stem cells of people with autism and showed how transcriptional alterations affecting certain cell types during human brain development could contribute to the early emergence of ASD.
![proteostasis cycle](https://simonsfoundation.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/21144738/twitter-ups-4.jpeg?auto=format&q=90&fit=crop&w=105&h=105)
In a mouse model of fragile X syndrome, Emily Osterweil and her colleagues show that excessive protein synthesis drives a pathological compensatory rise in protein degradation (by the ubiquitin proteasome system), which can be targeted to correct various phenotypes including audiogenic seizures.