Report from HEARD ("Healthy Engagement in Autism Research Dialogue") about autism genetics www.cell.com/trends/genet... HEARD's aims: "allowing productive disagreement, critical examination of one’s perspectives, and improving our collective capacity for holding conflicting perspectives in mind"?

Cuts have consequences. For the first time this century under 5 mortality rates are projected to rise. The full report is here: www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers/... What a dereliction of duty by high income countries like the US, UK and the Netherlands, who all cut their aid budgets

What a productive week analysing data and writing papers with this wonderful group. I can't wait to come back to Addis!

My former King's College London MSc DEVPP student, Sophie Roper, has published her dissertation on autism, sucidality and ageing. Supervised by me, plus @proffrancescahappe.bsky.social & @goldage.bsky.social The paper is open access in Molecular Autism: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #AutRes

🚨 ♾ Our report out yesterday calls on HM Government to deliver an effective new autism strategy. Open this link committees.parliament.uk/committee/77... to view the following: - Full report - Easy Read report - Report summary with conclusions and recommendations - Shorthand

Amidst all the gloom, a genuine glorious reason to live in the UK: to attend a popular science gig and find a large theatre hall completely sold out www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...

Huh. If you say you’ll mess with indefinite leave to remain rules it turns out talented migrant workers start looking at their other options. This could never have been predicted! on.ft.com/3JiZxbM

This is bleak. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Yesterday we said goodbye to lab member @jialingli.bsky.social who is moving back to China to take up a postdoc role. Jialing, you were an awesome PhD student and will be greatly missed in the GLADlab! London's loss is China's gain, I look forward to following all the fab things you will do next.

Awww. A good profile by Sirin Kale who personalises what a first or second gen interviewer can bring to the table.

Are you interested in studying longitudinal developmental trajectories of children with developmental disabilities in Ethiopia and Kenya? Please consider applying for a PhD! More information about the project is here: kcl-mrcdtp.com/project/2026... #AutRes

Neurodiversity is looking for a new Editor! The deadline for expressions of interest is October 5th. Full details are here journals.sagepub.com...

Introducing slightly less cruel/damaging version of Farage's plans would not "outmanoeuvre Reform";would be an economic/ political own goal Far better to attack Reform/Tories for Powellite ethnonationalism & say migrants who come here, contribute & *choose* to stay are welcome -and become British.

Hello India and hello autism researchers, I will be in Delhi this week to speak at the #AOCCN2025 conference. I'll go straight from the airport to the autism pre conference workshop tomorrow afternoon, and will speak at the main conference on Saturday. Please come say hi! aoccn2025.in

“They want our ideas. They just don’t want us.” Kenyan 'shadow scholars' writing essays for UK university students www.theguardian.com/education/20...

One of my favourite things: koppie climbing

Simon Kuper suggests it's bikes and kids' independence (yes!), I think being allowed hagelslag or nutella as sandwich topping two meals a day also helps

The CRAE tech imp has been rewiring the Bluesky New Autism Research Feed. It trawls through posts and tries its best to find the latest papers for you. Do PM us if there seem to be any glaring omissions as we syncopate the algorithm. bsky.app/profile/did...

This is a great article that thoughtfully articulates differences of viewpoints from neurodivergent researchers studying neurodiversity. It helped me better understand what may underlie some of the vehement disagreements in autism research.

What good parenting can look like: "Parents recognized that their [autistic] child's attempt to share their passion with their parent stemmed from a desire to connect, & parents found fulfillment when “he invites me into his world”: “the fact that he wants to share it [with me] is fulfilling for me”

Copied from @nihr.bsky.social from the other side: this was a nice event hosted by the Kenya High Commission where NIHR funded health projects in Kenya presented their research findings and heard from the Kenyan MoH about their priorities. A great opportunity for researchers to meet policy makers

What a beautiful reflective piece of writing by @reporterrwright.ft.com on.ft.com/4nNmJym

“The way the secretary characterizes autism research, it’s as if nobody’s been doing anything for the last 30 years.” 🩺 🛟

And the UK directly contributed to this by making the choice to cut aid to balance the books (pretending the money went on defence instead), just as it was most needed. Seems to have been largely forgotten in the discourse. It shouldn’t be.

Thank you @wellcometrust.bsky.social for setting out the effects of the UK spending review for research so clearly. Funding for research in low-income countries is set to halve. The UK is a world leader in global health research collaborations. This spending decision puts that position at risk. 1/3

Fellow humans, please stop driving cars with high bonnets. You don't look cool and you're more likely to kill others. www.transportenvironment.org/articles/eve...

Learn more about the ground breaking #AutRes work our SPARK colleague Prof Amina Abubakar does in Kenya here: www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/ami...

You can't ask migrants to integrate AND let them wait 10 years to acquire settled status. As @nesrinemalik.bsky.social explains these two are mutually exclusive. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

the mass killings people still don’t talk about: since Trump took office, more than 50,000 adults and nearly 6,000 children have died from the withdrawal of HIV drugs. Just imagine it: your kid is HIV + but healthy and happy and fine - and then suddenly, a far-flung racist takes their meds away

This Archie Bland piece is such a thing. Beautifully written, heartfelt, triumphant. He's on Bluesky but not active. He should know this is a lovely masterpiece. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

My first paper from my PhD project is out! I'm grateful to work with such a fantastic team. @rosahoekstra.bsky.social @Melissa/Tsegereda/Francesca

New paper🚨, by the wonderful @jialingli.bsky.social! Extended relatives play an important role in caring for autistic people, but this is often overlooked in policy and intervention research. Our systematic review of qualitative studies synthesises findings from 42 studies doi.org/10.1007/s105...

Final call! Please consider applying to join the editorial team at the journal Autism. journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/PD... We especially encourage applications from underrepresented groups, including #autistic scholars and researchers from the global South. 1/3

This blithe attitude- oh we'll figure out if current migrants have to wait five more years or not, maybe they'll satisfy our nebulous economic contribution requirement and get fewer. It cannot hold. No-one high skilled will come to a country making it up as it goes along. www.ft.com/content/7bad...

The new WHO team healthpolicy-watch.news/who-director...

I'm delighted to be able to share details about our research project with Dr Lucy Foulkes( @lucyfoulkes.bsky.social )! Please let us know if you would like to take part or if you know someone who would be keen to! 📧 [email protected] or DM for more information!!

christ, what a day to be an immigrant cursed with the ability to read

Fellow uni prof migrant here, equally disappointed. I genuinely thought the rhetoric would change under Labour. The early signs (eg dropping of the Rwanda 'deal') were promising, I'm dispirited it didn't last

A shoutout to the gender diversity panel at #INSAR2025 who attended despite safety concerns about international travel for transgender+ people. We at the Autism Community Issues and Experiences were impressed by your submission and are happy you delivered a strong panel on important autism research.

I know we're getting to the tail end of #INSAR2025 but please consider holding out until the end, to attend this session 2-4pm. You are in for a treat, with trial results presentations from @kathyleadbitter.bsky.social, Meera, Gauri Divan and Martine Habra

It's 6.30pm in Seattle and the #INSAR2025 poster session is still buzzing! So cool to see such engagement 😍. Come find @jialingli.bsky.social at poster 37 presenting on stigma and support from extended relatives for autistic children in China

Dr Alexia Rattazzi accepts the #INSAR2025 cultural diversity award on behalf of the REAL network, a network that has been extremely successful in building autism research capacity in Latin America on a shoestring budget. Congrats REAL team!

Come find @tsegereda.bsky.social present her poster at #INSAR2025! She is presenting on the accuracy of a proactive case finding approach aiming to increase identification of children with developmental disabilities and encourage help seeking. See www.thesparkproject.net for more info

Wowsers what a powerful rallying cry to stand up for science by Dr Andy Shih after accepting the #INSAR2025 autism research advocacy award

Incoming INSAR president Dr Brian Boyd kicks off #INSAR2025 by highlighting the consequences of US funding cuts for autism research. ECRs: I'm not going to pretend to have any clear solutions. But if you'd find it helpful to have a chat, come find me at INSAR www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/fed...

Hello Seattle, hello #INSAR2025! Looking forward to four days of discussing autism science with the global autism research community

A timely editorial and a chance to encourage autism researchers from around the globe to consider applying for open Editor and Advisory Editor posts at our journal: us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/op... Deadline for Advisory Editors is today! (midnight whatever your timezone)

This September I will be doing an end of fellowship public lecture at Durham University for the centre for Neurodiversity and Development on the topic of how autistic people are constructed and described in autism research, and why IT MATTERS!

Autism research publications continue to be heavily skewed towards high income Western countries. @kathyleadbitter.bsky.social has led this initiative to take stock, outlining our @journalautism.bsky.social initiatives and identifying where we still fall short journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....