Twenty-day-old cortical organoid (Image by Tuan Nguyen/Quadrato Lab)Maybe a child misses a developmental milestone, such as rolling over, or saying that first word. Perhaps the child also falls down due to seizures, or develops symptoms of an autism spectrum disorder. Eventually, a doctor pinpoints the cause: a rare and spontaneous variant in a gene called SYNGAP1, which leads to a variety of debilitating conditions that might include intellectual disability, epilepsy, and autism spectrum disorders. As of now, there is no cure.
To help children with this rare syndrome, Ashley Evans and Mike Graglia founded the SynGAP Research Fund (SRF), which recently donated $46,250 to USC Stem Cell researchers Marcelo Pablo Coba and Giorgia Quadrato.
