Doctor Łukasz Szewczyk and professor Marta Wiśniewska have published the results of a five-year study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. In collaboration with Professor Anna
Molofsky (University of California, San Francisco), they investigated the role of the autism risk gene TCF7L2 in brain development. They discovered that TCF7L2 is a regulator of astrocyte development – cells supporting neurons and neuronal functions, and they demonstrated that disruption in astrocyte maturation affects the balance of neuronal excitation and leads to the emergence of atypical social behaviors.
