A SFARI initiated and funded reanalysis of previous studies reveals consistent biological signals in the human microbiome and other physiological signals associated with autism and highlights the need for long-term studies to determine autism’s underlying causes.

In a series of articles published in the journal Nature Genetics, researchers used data from the SPARK research cohort, which was created to advance our understanding of the complex genetics of autism and includes genetic data from nearly 43,000 people with autism. The findings show differences in genetic influences among people all along the autism spectrum.