Common gene variants account for most of the genetic risk for autism

(The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine) Nearly 60 percent of the risk of developing autism is genetic and most of that risk is caused by inherited variant genes that are common in the population and present in individuals without the disorder, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the July 20 edition of Nature Genetics.