On October 1st, Autism Science Foundation, Autism Speaks and the Escher Fund for Autism co-organized a webinar entitled “Early Germline Events in the Heritable Etiology of ASDs”.  The goal was to bring together researchers who study the germline (the sperm and the egg and all cells which pass down genetic information) and those studying the genetics of autism to determine how “de novo” or “new” genetic mutations are happening and how environment plays a role in genetics of autism and vice versa, rather than separating the concepts out into “either/or” .  This is part of an ongoing online symposium series on the epigenetics of autism.  Dr. Amander Clark from UCLA and Dr. Ryan Yuen from SickKids Hospital presented and a panel of experts including Lisa Chadwick from NIEHS, Patrick Allard from UCLA, Stephan Sanders from UCSF and Janine LaSalle from UCDavis commented.  We hope you enjoy the 2 hour webinar.