Meanwhile, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have begun testing a protein called insulin-like growth factor 1 in people affected by a mutation of the SHANK3 gene, also a cause of autism spectrum disorders. Tests in mice with the mutation have shown that affected communication deficits in the animals' brains, particularly those related to learning and memory, appeared to correct themselves. "If you can have medication that targets the core symptoms of autism," says Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on research, "to me that's the holy grail."
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