Neurodevelopmental disorders, which include intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders, comprise a wide range of neurological and psychiatric conditions that appear during a child's developmental period.
These are complex and highly variable disorders, which are caused by genetic and environmental factors.
A team of researchers of Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan and of the Institute of Neuroscience of the National Research Council, with research teams at the universities of Trento and Pisa, identified the molecular event that causes some intellectual disabilities.
Their studies were funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and by Fondazione Telethon.
The research team of the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology & Epigenetics of Cibio at the University of Trento, coordinated by Alessio Zippo, played a key role in understanding the functioning of SETD5, the gene whose mutation is linked to a number of intellectual and autism disorders.
More details in the press release