Our group gathers psychiatrists, neuroscientists and geneticists to understand the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

We are currently performing a thorough genomic and clinical profiling of a large number of individuals (> 1000 families with ASD) using high-throughput genotyping/sequencing, biochemistry and brain imaging. In parallel, we are focusing on a set of mutations that we identified in genes related to the synapse (NLGN, SHANK, CNTN) by studying in depth their functional impact at the clinical and neuronal levels. Especially, we are exploring new ways of modulating the observed deficits by using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and animal models. Our group is also developing new methods for analyzing whole genome and brain imaging data as well as new paradigms for characterizing mice social and vocal behaviors.