Dec 12, 2025
3 min read
After more than 50 years of research, scientists still don't know exactly what causes autoimmune diseases.But the data clearly shows that genetics is an important part of the puzzle.
Researchers say that when searching for the causes of autism, one should look at genes, not vaccines
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- Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.continues to falsely claim that vaccines cause autism, despite overwhelming research to the contrary.
Scientists say that autism is primarily a genetic disease, pointing to twin studies that show concordance rates of 60% to 90% among identical twins, compared to 20% in non-identical twins.
- Researchers worry that Kennedy's cuts to autism research and focus on vaccines could undermine science-based efforts to understand the complex causes of the disorder.
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"By September, we'll know what's causing the autism epidemic and we can eliminate those exposures," Kennedy told President Trump at a cabinet meeting in April.
That ambitious deadline has come and gone.But researchers and advocates say Kennedy's continued focus on the origins of autism — and his frequent false claims that childhood vaccines are somehow related — are built on fundamental misunderstandings about the complex neurodevelopmental condition.
Even after more than half a century of research, no one still knows exactly why some people have autistic traits and others don't, or why autism spectrum disorder varies so much among people who have it.But some key themes have emerged.
Researchers believe that autism most likely results from a complex set of interactions between genes and the environment that occur while a child is in the womb.It can be passed down through families or arise from a spontaneous gene mutation.
Environmental influences may indeed play a role in some cases of autism, but their influence is greatly influenced by a person's genes.There's no evidence that a single trigger causes autism, and certainly no evidence that a single trigger causes autism, and certainly no evidence that a single trigger causes it after birth: not vaccines, not parenting styles, or post-circumcision Tylenol.
"The root cause of the problem, fundamentally, is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution," said Irva Hertz-Picciotto of the UC Davis Health Center.
People with autism often suffer from suicidal tendencies and mental health conditions.Few providers understand your needs.
Kennedy, a lawyer with no medical or scientific training, called the genetic autistic research "sex song".Autism researchers argue that this is the only logical place to start.
"If we don't know if autosomy is mainly genetic, and you don't need specific genes," said Joe Buxbaum, director of the MacSynther Center for Therapeutic Therapy at Mali Medical School.
Some energy-related disorders are caused by a difference in a single yorosomal gene.People with Down syndrome on Chromosome 21, for example, have x syndrome, and x syndrome results when FMR1 expression is unknown.
Autism is almost always polygenetic, meaning that multiple genes are involved, each contributing a little bit to the overall picture.
Researchers have discovered hundreds of genes that may be linked to autism; there are approximately 20,000 genes in the human genome, and there are likely many more.
Meanwhile, the strongest evidence that autism is genetic comes from studies of twins and other sibling groups, Buchsbaum and other researchers say.
The rate of autism in the general US population is about 2.8%, according to a study published last year in the journal Pediatrics.Among children with at least one autistic sibling, that's 20.2% — about seven times more than the general population, the study found.
Twin studies confirm this.Both identical and fraternal twins develop in the same womb and are usually raised in the same environment in the same family.The difference is genetic: identical twins share 100% of their genetic information, while fraternal twins share 50% (about the same as non-twins).
If one fraternal twin is autistic, the other twin has about a 20% chance of having autism, or the same as having a twin brother.
However, if one of identical twins is autistic, the likelihood that the other twin is also autistic is significantly higher.According to studies, the parallelism rate of identical twins is between 60% and 90%, although the intensity of the twins' autistic traits can vary significantly.
RFK Jr.says it wants to study the reasons behind the rising crash rates, but experts have so far ignored the scientific evidence.
Molecular genetic studies that look at genetic information shared between siblings and other blood relatives have found similar degrees of genetic influence in autism, said Dr. John Constantino, professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and chief of behavioral and mental health at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
Overall, he said, "these studies show that much of the causes of autism are due to the effects of genetic influences. That is a fact."
Buxbaum compares whether a person should collide with self-esteem to self-select with the protection of polygenic load, height.
"There is no gene that makes you taller or shorter," Buckbaum said. Hundreds of genes play a role in where you are on the height distribution curve. Many of these genes run in families—for example, it's not uncommon for very tall people to have very tall relatives.
But parents give a random mix of their genes for their children, and the distribution of altitude between siblings of the same sex can be very different.Genetic mutations can change the image.Marfan syndrome, a condition caused by mutations in the FBN1 Jean, usually causes people to grow taller than average.Hundreds of genetic mutations have been linked to Dwarfism, which causes shorter stature.
After a child is born, external factors such as malnutrition or illness can affect the likelihood that they will reach their full height potential.
The seed is therefore important.But the environment - which in the development of science means a place where parents, together with potential parents, over time can make a seed - is revealed.
"Genetics does not operate in space, and at the same time the impact of the environment will depend on the problem of developmental diseases," Brian K said.
Unlike childhood circumstances that can affect height, the environmental exposures associated with autism mostly take place in the womb.
Researchers have identified several factors associated with an increased risk of the disorder, including parental age, early childhood, and parental exposure to air pollution and industrial solvents.
Some of the more than 50 autism-related studies for which funding has been cut since Kennedy took office include investigations into some of these links, a ProPublica investigation found.By contrast, no credible study has found a link between vaccines and autism—and there are many more.
People with autism and their families say they can't find adequate help in their communities before they reach a crisis point.
One move by the Department of Health and Human Services was met with cautious optimism: Even as Kennedy cut funding for other research projects, the department in September announced a $50 million initiative to investigate the interactions of genes and environmental factors in autism, which is spread across 13 different research groups at US universities, including UCLA and UC San Diego.
The selection of established, systematic research groups in this area has been facilitated by many autism scientists.
But many say they are afraid that such decisions will become popular, which do not correspond to their unnecessary ideas, which have been raised by the pets of people who have a problem with bugs.
Disagreement is an essential part of scientific inquiry.But producers take place in a universe of shared facts and build on established evidence.
and when considering how to use limited resourcesResearchers sayIt is important to make decisions based on evidence.
“There are two aspects to these decisions: Are they reasonable costs based on what we already know?And if you're spending money here, are you going to take money away from HHS that people really need?"Konstantin said."If you're going to spend money, you want to do it without contradicting what we already know."
