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L.I. Scientist Claims Stunning Find About Autism

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Aug 15, 2007 6:06 pm US/Eastern

L.I. Scientist Claims Stunning Find About Autism

Molecular Geneticist: Mystery Fueled By Mutated Genes

By Scott Rapoport, CBS 2 News
COLD SPRING HARBOR (CBS) ― Behind the walls of a laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor may lie the beginnings of a scientific breakthrough.

Michael Wigler is a molecular geneticist, whose research is slowly unraveling the secrets of autism, and what causes it.

"It has all kinds of scientific implications," Wigler said. "It has a really hopeful message."

Autism is more common than you might think. According to recent statistics, it affects 1 in every 150 children in the United States.

Lori Murdock and 12-year-old son Connor know all too well about autism -- a neurobiological disorder that affects behavior and communication.

"It's something that steals your child's mind, your child's abilities, your happiness," Lori said.

What Wigler says he learned in the Cold Spring Harbor laboratory is that autism is a genetic disorder, can be caused by spontaneous mutations in genes and can be passed on unknowingly by healthy parents to their offspring.

The importance of knowing this could be immeasurable.

"Parents will be able to determine the risk of having an autistic child," Wigler said. "Diagnosis for autism can be done at an earlier age."

For Connor and his mom, who now runs an autism school on Long Island, it's not a cure-all, but the news is welcome.

"I think it's important because it's a starting point, something to work from," Lori said.

A first step toward better understanding this complicated condition.

The Cold Spring Harbor laboratory is also world renown for it's research in cancer and neurobiology.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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