Autism Genes

22/04/2026

16/04/2026

We've been talking about gut microbes breaking down microplastics at conferences for years, so this new paper didn't surprise me, but what did genuinely excite me is the scale of what they've found. We knew certain species could do it. What this research is now showing is that it's almost universal. 95% of bacterial species carry the genes to break down microplastics. Not just a handful of specialists. Virtually all of them! 😁
So all the probiotic foods, coconut yoghurt, fermented vegetables, kombucha, everything we've been doing to build a rich diverse microbiome has been supporting this capacity all along, across the board. That makes me very happy. 💚
Paper is in the comments.

10/04/2026

So this just dropped in the Journal of Neuroinflammation about children with autism and gut issues.

Researchers at UC Davis looked at a type of immune cell called Regulatory T cells, Tregs for short. These are essentially your immune system's peacekeepers. Their whole job is to calm things down, protect the gut lining and stop inflammation from running out of control.

In autistic children they found these cells are depleted. And the children who also had gut symptoms had the fewest of all. The worse the gut, the fewer the peacekeepers, and the worse the behaviour scores, including speech.
What's interesting is it wasn't just that there were fewer of these cells. The genes inside them were dysregulated too, particularly the ones involved in epigenetic control and mitochondrial function. So they're not just reduced in number, they're not working properly at a fundamental biological level.

This matters because it helps explain why so many of our children have this triple picture of immune dysfunction, gut problems and neurological symptoms all at once. They're not separate issues. They're the same issue expressing in different places.

The gut homing subset, the Tregs that are supposed to travel to the gut and maintain mucosal immune tolerance, were the most depleted of all in children with both autism and GI symptoms. That's a really important finding.

This is why we use GcMAF.
So if your macrophages are compromised, your Treg population collapses. Which is exactly what this paper is showing in these children.
GcMAF restores macrophage function. Macrophages are what produce and sustain these Treg cells. Fix the macrophages, you start to rebuild the regulatory immune system. That's the mechanism. That's why it's a core part of what we do in our program at "Autism Genes".

We've been working within this immune / gut / brain framework for Autism since 2012. It's good to see more research validating it.

Full paper here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12974-026-03701-w

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social deficits and stereotypic behaviors. In ASD, increased numbers of i

02/04/2026

Happy International Autism Day 🥰

31/03/2026

Just a reminder to clean the fridge filter. 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BCZMjh1He/?mibextid=wwXIfr

25/03/2026

Will you be joining us in Sydney for either the practitioner training or the family education stream? In person or online. My discount code is Way26
https://mif26.mindd.org/

06/03/2026

What a surprise, nutrients and a clean diet can improve quality of life and suicidal ideation for angry teens. It's good to see mainstream psychiatry journals finally acknowledging the power of nutrients. 😁

BEAM: Balancing Emotions for Adolescents with Micronutrients:ANZCTR - Registration DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT: We worked to ensure s*x and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human p …

28/01/2026

Things are about to get a whole lot better...

28/10/2025

The landmark report we've been waiting for about the underlying causes of autism was released today from the McCullough Foundation. It brings together more than 300 scientific studies which is the most comprehensive review to date, covering genetic, environmental, immune, toxicological, and vaccine-related factors.

Within the 136 studies on vaccines, the report found that 107 studies indicated an association between vaccines or their components and autism or other neurodevelopmental conditions. Importantly, it highlights 12 studies directly comparing fully vaccinated with never vaccinated children, all of which showed superior health outcomes among the never vaccinated, including significantly lower rates of autism and other chronic conditions.

The report also acknowledges additional risk factors such as parental age, prematurity, family history, maternal immune activation, in-utero exposures, environmental toxicants, and gut–brain imbalances. The report emphasises that childhood vaccination, especially when multiple doses are given early, is the most significant modifiable risk factor identified.

The paper further outlines biological mechanisms, including immune dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and the effects of compounds like aluminium and ethylmercury to explain how vaccines could contribute to autism development.

None of this comes as a surprise to us.

This comprehensive review concludes that the entire paediatric vaccine schedule has never been fully tested for long-term neurodevelopmental safety, and calls for urgent re-evaluation.

Authored by a team including Nicolas Hulscher, John Leake, Simon Troupe, Claire Rogers, Kirstin Cosgrove, Nathaniel Mead, Bre Craven, Mila Radetich, Andrew Wakefield, and Peter McCullough, this will hopefully be a turning point in the autism debate.
https://zenodo.org/records/17451259

02/10/2025

A recent study in the Journal of Bacteriology has shown that gut microbes can actually break down food additives, like the thickeners in ice cream or salad dressings, but only when they’re first “primed” with natural plant fibers (like oats or veggies). For decades, scientists thought these additives were completely inert and just passed straight through our body.

This supports what I’ve been teaching at MAPS: your gut bacteria are the body’s first pass at handling toxins and unwanted compounds. We need to ensure good diversity.

Here’s the paper if you’d like to dive in:

Our data reveal a previously unknown potential among members of the human gut microbiota to metabolize artificial cellulose derivatives used in processed food and oral pharmaceuticals, which is driven by plant glycans ubiquitous in well-balanced diets ...

10/09/2025

There is a new Brain & Mitochondria Study in Nature Neuroscience. It has shown that when brain cells make more ATP (their energy fuel), thinking and learning improve.

Why does this matter? Mitochondria (the “powerhouses” of our cells) don’t just make energy, they also help brain cells talk to each other and regulate important brain chemicals like glutamate and GABA.

This study is the first to clearly show that boosting mitochondrial energy directly supports higher-level brain functions, and links energy problems in the brain to sensory-motor challenges often seen in autism and other conditions.

Reference:
Pagano Zottola et al. Potentiation of mitochondrial function by mitoDREADD-Gs reverses pharmacological and neurodegenerative cognitive impairment in mice. Nature Neuroscience, 2025.

Activation of Gs signaling at mitochondria by mitoDREADD-Gs increases mitochondrial metabolism, leading to better memory in mouse models of dementia, directly linking brain mitochondrial deficits to cognitive symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases.