[Source:  Medical X-Press]

Recent studies of complex brain disorders such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have identified a few “master keys,” risk genes that sit at the center of a network of genes important for brain function. Researchers at Emory and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have now created mice partially lacking one of those master keys, called MIR-137, and have used them to identify an angle on potential treatments for ASD.