Autism is one of the most misunderstood disorders in society and science. Biochemist Raymond Poot of Erasmus MC has been trying to understand the phenomenon for years. He hopes to be able to determine the risk of autism in newborn babies with a genetic scan.
It seemed as if one of the genes behind autism had revealed itself, just like that in Raymond Poot’s Erasmus MC lab in Rotterdam. In specially grown stem cells that were ready to mature as brain cells, he thought he saw certain genes prompt the cell to do something unusual: a growth spurt. That would match what you see in the brains of many people with autism. They often have a larger brain because their brain cells have grown at a rapid pace in childhood. However, the experiment, now years ago, failed: he could not trace the genes.
Poot is now in his office on the tenth floor, overlooking the Euromast and the Nieuwe Maas. “Very nice, those mutations we made, but we didn’t see any difference.” Presumably it had something to do with the cell type in the lab. It turned out later that it was not suitable for the experiment. So gone were the possible clues to genes that might cause autism. “You can’t know that in advance. Shit of course, but we took the risk and lost. Then you will do something new.”
Autism is one of the most misunderstood disorders in science and society. Biochemist Poot is eager to get his finger on it. It is certain that autism has something to do with genes. The behavioral traits that people experience as a result – they have difficulty with social situations and are easily overstimulated – are more common in certain families. Based purely on how often parents with autism also have children with autism, researchers calculate that about 80 percent of the disorder is hereditary.
This makes autism something that must be readable in your DNA, thinks Poot, who specializes in gene regulation: which genes are ‘on or off’. He now approaches his research differently and hopes to set up a kind of genetic passport for autism. “Then you can already determine with a heel prick that a newborn baby has an increased risk of autism. If you know this earlier with a child, you can take it into account sooner and consider behavioral therapy, for example.”
This is the beginning of the interview with Raymond Poot can be found in KIJK 8/2022. This edition is in stores from 21 July to 17 August.
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Text: Ronald Veldhuizen
Image: Allard Faas