SFARI

Research Highlights

Highlights of SFARI-funded papers, selected by the SFARI science team.

Portrait of smiling boy wearing headphones with books sitting on the table behind him.

Autistic and Nonautistic Youth Successfully Leverage Same Social Learning Strategies

August 20, 2026

Black-and-white micrograph showing ten human X chromosomes arranged in two rows against a dark background. Several chromosomes display the characteristic fragile-X appearance, with a narrowed or constricted region near the tip of the long arm that gives them a stretched or partially separated shape. Normal X chromosomes, shown on the right side for comparison, appear more uniformly condensed and lack the fragile-site constriction. The image illustrates Q-banded chromosome staining used to identify fragile X chromosome abnormalities.

Fragile X Syndrome Impairs Cooperation in Rats

August 5, 2026

Confocal microscopy image of neurons in the nucleus accumbens of a mouse.

Acetylcholine Helps Dopamine Reward Hard Work

Confocal microscopy image showing neuronal expression of Chd1 in the Drosophila larval brain.

How an Autism-Associated Gene Keeps Synapses Stable

An image comparing the presence of ZBTB18 mRNA and ZBTB18 protein in germinal-zone cells shows that whilst RNA is detectable, the protein is not.

Protein Levels, Not Just Transcripts, Hold Clues to Autism

Image of the mouse superior colliculus neurons, overlaid with a color map showing the degree of plastic changes in their visual response dynamics during visual implicit learning task.

Altered Corticotectal Circuitry Shapes Contextual Sensory Processing in a Mouse Model of Autism

Photo of a A neurodivergent teenage girl (with autism and Rett syndrome) wearing bright headphones and smiling while sitting next to her personal care assistant at home.

Using the Linear References from the Pangenome to Discover Missing Autism Variants

A little boy with Autism and his sister sitting playing together laughing and being happy, smiling and cute.

Age at Autism Diagnosis Linked to Distinct Genetic Profiles

Recent SFARI-funded research challenges the idea that autism represents a single condition driven by a uniform set of genetic risk factors. Instead, the results support a developmental framework in which distinct constellations of polygenic influences are linked to different diagnostic timelines.

The choroid plexus undergoing apocrine secretion.

Choroid Plexus Secretion Regulates CSF Proteome and Alters Brain Development

SFARI-funded research demonstrates that activating serotonergic 5HT2c receptors leads to an increase in intracellular calcium, early-response gene expression and elevated protein secretion into cerebrospinal fluid.

An image of control neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of fetal macaque showing their many dendrites, compared to immature neurons that have few dendrites.

Multimodal Approach Reveals How Autism-Linked Genes Shape Primate Prefrontal Cortex Development

SFARI-funded research finds that RAPGEF4 is a key molecular regulator orchestrating prefrontal cortical maturation in primates.

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