The Drohans two sons Sam and Max have autism.
“It was really devastating to have them both being diagnosed at the same time, it was more devastating knowing our youngest son really was on a great trajectory and then all of a sudden something went awry,” says mother Jenn.
Autism is known to run in families so experts believed that siblings inherited the same autism-predisposing genes. But new research finds that's not the case.
The largest-ever autism genome study funded by Autism Speaks, sequenced 340 genomes from 85 families with two affected children. About 70% of siblings had little or no overlap in the gene variations known to contribute to autism.
“We frequently refer to them as snowflakes. Snowflakes are very unique from flake to flake and autism is very much the same thing at a genetic level. Each child is very different,” says Dr. Robert Ring.
The researchers are making the 1,000 autism genomes from their study available to other scientists around the world through Google Cloud platform to further the understanding of autism.
“There is probably not one autism. There are probably hundreds of different autisms,” says Dr. Ring.
The Drohans hope this new research will lead to personalized treatments for children like Max and Sam.
“We're excited for this not only for our family but for future generations,” says father John.
It's estimated that 1 in 68 children have autism.
