Don't forget the gametes: Neurodevelopmental pathogenesis starts in the sperm and egg
Jill Escher · Jill Escher is founder of the Escher Fund for Autism, which funds research on non-genetic inheritance, as well as autism-related programs. She is a member of the governing council of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society, where she is past chair of the Germ Cell and Heritable Effects special interest group. She also serves as president of the National Council on Severe Autism and past president of Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area. A former lawyer, she and her husband are the pa
Wed, Jul 6, 2022 · 17:00 UTC
Proper development of the nervous system depends not only on the inherited DNA sequence, but also on proper regulation of gene expression, as controlled in part by epigenetic mechanisms present in the parental gametes. In this presentation an internationally recognized research advocate explains why researchers concerned about the origins of increasingly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should look beyond genetics in probing the origins of dysregulated transcription of brain-related genes. The culprit for a subset of cases, she