Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an early-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired communication skills and social interaction, repetitive behaviour patterns and restricted and stereotyped interests. ASD is highly heritable, although the genetic factors involved are still largely unknown. We identified a rare deletion on chromosome 2, corresponding to a region including CAPG, which encodes for a post-synaptic protein, This evidence is important to understand the mechanisms underlying ASD considering the involvement of CAPG in the synaptic function, a pathway often dysregulated in ASD. The present project intends to 1) conduct a genetic, epigenetic and gene expression screening of 100 ASD subjects and 100 controls; 2)elucidate the role of CAPG for neuronal development and in ASD etiology thorough in vitro and in vivo studies; 3)investigate in Zebrafish and Drosophila ASD models impairment of neurons, synapses and locomotor behaviour by machine learning approaches.
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Roberto Bernardoni
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie
Coordinator:
Università degli Studi di CAGLIARI(Italy)
Total Unibo Contribution: Euro (EUR) 56.250,00
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date:
30/11/2023
End Date:
28/02/2026
