Study suggests link between prenatal exposure to certain medications and increased autism risk

Research identifies commonly prescribed, sterol biosynthesis-inhibiting medications as potential contributors to neurodevelopmental vulnerability.

University of Nebraska Medical Center

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From left, corresponding author Karoly Mirnics, MD, PhD, and Eric Peeples, MD, PhD, lead author

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Credit: Kiley Cruse and Chuck Koster

OMAHA, Nebraska — A landmark study led by researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and published in Molecular Psychiatry has identified a significant association between prenatal prescription of commonly utilized medications and the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children. 

Analyzing 6.14 million maternal-child health records from the Epic Cosmos database —representing nearly one-third of all U.S. births between 2014 and 2023 — the team found that prescription of medications known to inhibit the cholesterol synthesis pathway were consistently associated with higher rates of ASD in offspring. 

While previous studies grouped medications by their indications, the UNMC team grouped prescribed medications together based on common effects and side effects on sterol biosynthesis. 

These sterol biosynthesis–inhibiting medications (SBIMs) include certain antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, beta-blockers and statins. These are the generic names of the 14 medications studied: aripiprazole, atorvastatin, bupropion, buspirone, fluoxetine, haloperidol, metoprolol, nebivolol, pravastatin, propranolol, rosuvastatin, sertraline, simvastatin and trazodone. Many of these are among the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States, accounting for more than 400 million annual prescriptions. 

Key findings 

• Mothers prescribed at least one SBIM during pregnancy had a 1.47-fold higher risk of having a child diagnosed with ASD. Risk increased in a dose-dependent manner. For each additional SBIM co-prescribed, there was a 1.33 times increased risk of ASD, reaching 2.33-fold risk when four or more SBIMs were prescribed simultaneously. 

• Among the 196,447 children diagnosed with ASD in the cohort, 14.2% had prenatal SBIM exposure. 

• Use of SBIMs during pregnancy increased sharply over time, rising from 4.3% of pregnancies in 2014 to 16.8% in 2023. 

Why sterol biosynthesis matters 

Cholesterol is essential for fetal development, especially for the brain, the most cholesterol-rich organ. The fetal brain begins producing its own sterols around 19–20 weeks of gestation. Genetic disruptions in this pathway are known to cause severe developmental syndromes such as Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS), in which up to 75% of children meet criteria for ASD. Many widely used medications can unintentionally interfere with this pathway. This study is the first nationwide investigation to evaluate the neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with prenatal exposure to this group of medications. 

A public health signal requiring attention 

“Our findings do not suggest that these medications are unsafe for adults,” said senior author Karoly Mirnics, MD, PhD, dean and director of the UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute. “But they raise important questions about their use during pregnancy, a period when even small biochemical disruptions may have outsized effects on fetal brain development.” 

The authors stress that no pregnant patient should discontinue or alter medication without medical supervision, as many SBIMs are essential, often life-saving treatments. Instead, the study calls for a re-evaluation of prescribing practices and for developing safer alternatives for use during pregnancy. 

Potential next steps 

The research team proposes several actions to improve drug safety for pregnant patients: 

• Create a comprehensive list of medications with sterol-inhibiting effects. 
• Evaluate all new pharmaceuticals for unintended sterol pathway inhibition. 
• Increase provider education about medication-associated sterol disruption during pregnancy. 
• Discuss safer alternatives when discontinuing treatment is not possible. 
• Avoid prescribing multiple SBIMs for pregnant women whenever feasible. 
• Identify patients with genetic vulnerabilities in sterol metabolism, as they might be particularly sensitive to SBIM effects. 
• Invest in further research to understand mechanisms and mitigate risk. 

The work was conducted using the Epic Cosmos national data platform and included collaboration among UNMC’s Department of Pediatrics, Department of Biostatistics, Munroe-Meyer Institute, other UNMC departments and the Child Health Research Institute (CHRI). The study received support from UNMC/CHRI internal resources, the Dorothy B. Davis Foundation and the Nebraska Tobacco Settlement Fund. 

About UNMC  

As Nebraska’s only public academic health science center, the University of Nebraska Medical Center enrolls more than 4,800 students across six colleges, two institutes and a graduate studies program. A nationally recognized leader in research and innovation, UNMC’s mission is to create a healthier future for Nebraskans through premier education, research and clinical care, but its impact – rooted in a culture of collaboration, big ideas and public-private partnerships – goes far beyond, in areas that include infectious diseases, rural health, cancer research and treatments, global health security, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and simulation and experiential learning technologies. 

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Journal

Molecular Psychiatry

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Study suggests link between prenatal exposure to certain medications and increased autism risk

Article Publication Date

16-Apr-2026

 

To thwart pathogens, researchers are giving beneficial microbes what they really want

UC San Diego researchers have developed a new method that allows precise modification of any microbiome with prebiotics, helping beneficial organisms outcompete dangerous pathogens

University of California - San Diego

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University of California San Diego researchers have developed a new tool for understanding and modifying any microbiome, including the human microbiome. The approach, called Microbial Interaction and Niche Determination (MIND), accurately predicts how microbes compete within complex communities and identifies their specific nutrient preferences. The findings, published on April 17 in Cell, have the potential to accelerate the translation of microbiome science from the lab to the clinic, paving the way for highly targeted microbiome therapies, for example, as an alternative to traditional antibiotics. 

Until now, establishing a causal link between a specific microbe and certain disease has remained elusive, hampering the development of microbiome-based therapies. Microbiome science has traditionally resembled a census: researchers could observe which bacteria were present in the gut or other environments, but they lacked the means to predict how they interact or change the abundance of specific microbes.

“ Microbiome research in general has been very descriptive and we were not able to manipulate microbiomes because we did not understand how they're assembled,  how they're maintained and the dynamics within them,” said senior author Karsten Zengler, PhD, professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine, adjunct professor of bioengineering at the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering and a member of the Center for Microbiome Innovation at Jacobs School of Engineering.

The MIND approach shifts the field from simply describing microbiomes to actively and precisely controlling them. According to Zengler, controlling a microbiome requires knowing what the bacteria want and which other microbes they are competing against to get it.

MIND deciphers this by analyzing how microbes allocate their finite resources to translating messenger RNA (mRNA) into functional proteins, a cell’s most energy-intensive process. By measuring which specific proteins a microbe is actively making at any given time using a technique called ribosome profiling, the tool reveals which exact nutrients it prefers and how it allocates its energy.

If two different types of bacteria prefer the same nutrients, MIND flags them as competitors. 

By applying this approach to thousands of microbes, the researchers can map out complex competitive interactions and predict how communities will respond when species are added or removed. 

Armed with this interaction map, the researchers tested these predictions by introducing specific nutrients (prebiotics) like sugars and amino acids to selectively feed and boost certain microbes, allowing them to outcompete others and reshape the microbial community in several environments: 

• Synthetic Microbial Communities: In a 16-member microbial community, MIND accurately predicted competitive interactions and identified which specific microbes would benefit from the addition of particular substrates.

• Soil Microbiomes: MIND accurately predicted which nutrients would boost beneficial bacteria and naturally crowd out their competitors.

• Human Microbiomes: The tool identified the preferred nutrients of beneficial infant gut bacteria like Bifidobacterium, guiding precise prebiotic (nutrients like sugars and amino acids) and probiotic (microbe) interventions that selectively promoted target bacteria while suppressing competitors.

• Live Mouse Model: MIND predicted that a beneficial gut bacterium, Faecalibaculum rodentium, would thrive in the presence of lactose. Supplementing mice with lactose selectively enriched this bacterium, demonstrating that the method works safely and precisely in a living animal. 

“ Showing that we can do this not only in a flask, but also in a living organism was astonishing,” said Zengler. He believes the findings have major implications for treating infectious diseases by enabling rapid, cost-effective and precise prebiotic interventions.

For example, many healthy adults naturally carry potentially dangerous bacteria like Clostridioides difficile or Staphylococcus aureus without ever getting sick because beneficial microbes keep them in check. Using MIND to identify these natural competitors could allow clinicians to administer prebiotics that lower pathogen levels just enough to prevent an infection. This offers an additional approach beyond the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which can also destroy beneficial bacteria and drive antibiotic resistance.

“The benefit of this approach is that you take advantage of competitive interactions between bacteria that have evolved over millions of years, so there's likely no resistance popping up with this,” said Zengler. 

He notes that selectively feeding prebiotics to beneficial bacteria is often superior to introducing live probiotic bacteria, because many strains cannot be successfully stabilized or mass-produced, and frequently fail to integrate into existing microbiome communities.

And because MIND relies on manipulating naturally occurring microbes rather than developing new drugs, these therapies would be more cost-effective, face fewer regulatory hurdles and could reach the clinic more quickly.

“Right now, we have small clinical safety trials going on where people take specific nutrients we identified as prebiotics to prevent dysbiosis, an imbalance in the microbiome caused by pathogenic bacteria,” Zengler said.  

Beyond human health, the MIND approach has a multitude of other applications, including fighting climate change by promoting microbes that enhance carbon storage in soil and improving pathogen resilience in plants.

“ This really opens up many possibilities in microbiome research,” said Zengler, who is also faculty director of the Soil Center at UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “Instead of just describing how important the microbiome is, we can actively tinker with microbiome composition for improved outcomes.”

Additional co-authors on the study include: Oriane Moyne, Grant J. Norton, Mahmoud Al-Bassam, Chloe Lieng, Deepan Thiruppathy, Manish Kumar, Eli Haddad, Yuhan Weng, Manuela Raffatellu and Livia S. Zaramela, all at UC San Diego. 

The study was funded, in part, by U.S. Department of Energy (awards DE-SC0021234, DE-SC0022137 and DE-AC02-480 05CH11231), the UC San Diego (UCSD) Center for Microbiome Innovation, the UC San Diego Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence and the National Institutes of Health (T32 DK007202, 485 F31AI186410-01 and R21AI186034).

Moyne, Al-Bassam and Zengler are inventors on a related patent application. The authors declare no other competing interests.

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Journal

Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2026.03.036 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Publication Date

17-Apr-2026

 

Novel multi-material 3D-printed parts for industrial applications

Innovative material system for 3D printing of high-performance ceramic components

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

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High-performance components can be produced using different materials in a single process with CeraMMAM.

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Credit: Markus Breig, KIT

In its CeraMMAM project, a team of researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has developed a system with which high-performance components can be produced from multiple materials in a single process using a universal binder system. This technology offers new prospects for industrial applications, particularly in medicine, mechanical engineering, and aerospace. During the Hannover Messe, April 20–24, 2026, the researchers will be presenting potential applications of multi-material additive manufacturing along with the first industrial prototypes and demonstrators at the KIT booth (Hall 11, Booth B06). 

With additive manufacturing, complex components can be produced layer by layer. Until now, it was usually only possible to use pure materials, such as metals or ceramics. In their CeraMMAM (Ceramic Multi Material Additive Manufacturing) project, researchers at KIT’s wbk Institute of Production Science have made a major breakthrough by developing an innovative universal binder system that allows different ceramic materials, or ceramics and metals, to be combined.

 

New Designs and Functionality with Multi-material 3D Printing

The new technology is based on vat photopolymerization, a 3D printing technique in which components are produced layer by layer from a photosensitive material containing ceramic or metal particles. The material is then exposed to light of a specific wavelength, with the aim to polymerize and cure it locally.  The specially developed binder system ensures that different materials bond durably during a single printing process, streamlining production considerably. The binder system, which consists of liquid polymers, functional additives, and a photoinitiator, is removed after the printing process through debinding, after which the part is densified by sintering.

 

“Using our universal binder system, we can produce multi-material components with novel and partially contradictory material properties,” said wbk’s Chantal-Liv Lehmann. “That makes completely new and previously impossible designs and functionalities possible. For example, we can produce components such as ceramic gears with flexible interiors and especially hard surfaces.” The process also allows the precise reproduction of delicate and complex structures – a technological milestone, particularly in ceramics manufacturing.

 

Combining Ceramics and Metals

The researchers are working on further technological refinements to enable combinations of ceramics and metals in the future. The ability to combine electrically insulating ceramics with conductive metallic structures is especially promising. Possible applications include power electronics, 5G, 6G, and high-frequency technologies, miniaturized sensors for internet-connected devices, and autonomous vehicles. 

 

More information: 

https://www.km.kit.edu/english/hannovermesse2026.php

https://www.wbk.kit.edu/ 

 

In close partnership with society, KIT develops solutions for urgent challenges – from climate change, energy transition and sustainable use of natural resources to artificial intelligence, sovereignty and an aging population. As The University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT unites scientific excellence from insight to application-driven research under one roof – and is thus in a unique position to drive this transformation. As a University of Excellence, KIT offers its more than 10,000 employees and 22,800 students outstanding opportunities to shape a sustainable and resilient future. KIT – Science for Impact.

 

Using a new online mental health tool just once boosts teenagers’ hope and emotional wellbeing

A one-off, brief, self-guided online mental health support tool has been shown to meaningfully improve young people’s sense of hope and control over their lives.

University of Bath

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• Research finds that one-time use of a free online tool can positively support young people’s mental health and wellbeing
• The Action Brings Change (ABC) UK wellbeing activity has been developed by psychologists and health researchers at the University of Bath in partnership with the Lab for Scalable Mental Health in the USA
• A one-off, brief, self-guided online mental health support tool has been shown to meaningfully improve young people’s sense of hope and control over their lives.
• The tool’s evidence-backed activities provide an accessible additional option to traditional mental health services, paid-for mental health apps or AI

Developed by psychologists and health researchers at the the University of Bath, Project Action Brings Change (ABC) UK is a free digital support tool - known as a digital single‑session intervention (SSI) - that provides short, accessible and evidence-based psychological support and wellbeing activities.

Research into the tool published today has found that use of ABC UK increased users’ feelings of hope and self-agency, and reduced feelings of being ‘out of control.’

Taking 15-20 minutes to complete, a single session using the ABC UK tool provides young people with high-quality information about psychological science, and self-help exercises and questions to help them apply what they have learned.

Available online at unlockwellbeing.org.uk, the tool is free and can be accessed via the internet from any device.

Professor Maria Loades, a Clinical Psychologist in Bath’s Department of Psychology and lead author of the research paper, said: “These early findings suggest that a short, engaging digital activity can offer meaningful emotional support to teenagers at scale. ABC UK could be a valuable, accessible, and anonymous option at a time when many young people are struggling to access traditional clinic-based services.

“ABC UK aims to help young people understand the link between what they do and how they feel, to learn how to break cycles of avoidance, and set small, meaningful goals they can pursue immediately.”

Designed to be therapeutic and deliver benefits straight away, ABC is intended for one-off use and focuses on one key message – opening up the possibility of immediate change. ABC has previously been shown to reduce depressive symptoms in young people in the US at a three-month follow-up.

Of the 356 13–18-year-olds in the UK who completed pre- and post-activity assessments, researchers found: increased hope and self-agency, reduced hopelessness, and reduced feelings of life being ‘out of control’. All changes were statistically significant, with moderate effect sizes. Importantly, young people in the UK liked it:

• 87% found it easy to understand

• 85% found it easy to use

• 70% said it was helpful

Reaching underserved groups

More than half of participants in the UK study identified as LGBTQ+, and they were more likely than their peers to complete the intervention. This suggests that anonymous, self-guided digital mental health support may be particularly appealing to sexual minority adolescents – a group that is both at higher risk of mental health difficulties and less likely to seek face‑to‑face help.

As rates of youth anxiety and low mood continue to rise, researchers say brief, anonymous digital support tools may help bridge gaps in access to mental health services.

Dr Jeff Lambert, a Senior Lecturer in Bath’s Department for Health, added: “We know that many young people struggle to access timely mental health support. While there are a series of apps and services available, and more young people are turning to AI for therapy, ABC UK is free, accessible and underpinned by peer-reviewed research and can help them take small, meaningful steps to improve their wellbeing.”

Participants for further trials wanted

The team is now set to expand their study to include 19–25-year-olds as well as 13-18s and take place over a longer time period. Young people interested in trying the tool and taking part in future studies can find out more information at unlockwellbeing.org.uk.

Participants do not have to have accessed or tried to use other sources of support before taking part.

Prof Maria Loades added: “Our mission is to improve access to early help for teenagers and young adults with mental health symptoms with digital interventions. Tools like ABC UK can bring significant benefits in a simple, rapid, and appropriate way, so we’re very keen to find more trial participants to further understand how these tools can be refined and improved.”

About the study

The paper Immediate Effects and Experiences of a Digital Single-session Behavioural Activation based Intervention for Adolescents: a single arm pre-post programme evaluation of Project ABC in the UK is published in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry (DOI: 10.1177/13591045261433857).

The research was conducted by the University of Bath’s Department of Psychology and the Mental Health Research Group, supported by partners including Kooth and Shout 85258.

Funding was provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

 

ENDS

For more information or to request interviews with the researchers, contact Will McManus: wem25@bath.ac.uk / press@bath.ac.uk / +44(0)1225 385 798

 

University of Bath

The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities, recognised for high-impact research, excellence in education, an outstanding student experience and strong graduate prospects.

• We are ranked among the top 10% of universities globally, placing 132nd in the QS World University Rankings 2026.
• We are ranked in the top 10 in all of the UK’s major university guides.
• The University achieved a triple Gold award in the last Teaching Excellence Framework 2023, the highest awards possible, for both the overall assessment and for student outcomes and student experience. The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a national scheme run by the Office for Students (OfS).
• We are The Times and The Sunday Times Sport University of the Year 2026.

Research at Bath is shaping a better future through innovation in sustainability, health, and digital technologies. Find out all about our Research with Impact: http://bit.ly/3ISz1Wu

 

 

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Journal

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry

DOI

10.1177/13591045261433857 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Immediate Effects and Experiences of a Digital Single-Session Behavioural Activation Based Intervention for Adolescents: A Single Arm Pre-post Programme Evaluation of Project ABC in the UK

Article Publication Date

20-Apr-2026

 

How resilient fungus might survive Mars and space

American Society for Microbiology

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Key Points:

• Decontamination in cleanrooms used by NASA to build and study spacecraft focus mainly on bacteria.

• Researchers recently identified fungi in samples from spacecraft-associated environments, including cleanrooms.

• Conidia, a type of asexual reproductive spore, grown from those fungi survived after exposure to simulations of the harsh conditions of Mars and space travel.

• The findings suggest decontamination strategies should expand beyond traditional bacteria.

Washington, D.C.—Scientists have long known that fungi are resilient, but a new study suggests that some strains might survive every step of the long, brutal trip to Mars. 

In a paper published this week in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, researchers isolated fungal microbes from NASA cleanrooms—facilities used in the assembly, testing and launch of spacecraft—that had persisted after decontamination. When subjected to simulations of the harsh pressure, temperature and radiation conditions of space travel and Mars, asexual reproductive spores called conidia, of the fungus Aspergillus calidoustus, survived. 

“This does not mean contamination of Mars is likely, but it helps us better quantify potential microbial survival risks,” said microbiologist and study leader Kasthuri Venkateswaran, Ph.D. He is a former Senior Scientist in the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group (BPP) of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The group implements NASA policies on various missions for avoiding extraterrestrial cross-contamination with Earth’s microbes, and vice versa. “Microorganisms can possess extraordinary resilience to environmental stresses.” 

Researchers have long sought to understand fungal survival under space conditions. This study is the first to show that microbial eukaryotes—which have a nucleus, like fungi—could persist through every part of a mission to Mars, from preparation to space travel to robotic exploration, Venkateswaran said. 

BPP researchers study how microbes survive and adapt under harsh space conditions, and how they might be detected and monitored. Their work includes analyzing strategies for decontaminating environments associated with spacecraft, though Venkateswaran pointed out that germicidal techniques are usually assessed by studying resilient bacteria, not fungi. 

Microbial monitoring is a critical step in assembling spacecraft components and subsystems. For the new study, the researchers first generated conidia from 27 fungal strains that had been isolated from assembly facilities used in the Mars 2020 program, which led to the landing of the Perseverance rover on the red planet. They also included two organisms—bacterial and fungal—known to be able to survive high levels of radiation. 

They then subjected these fungal conidia to the intense conditions of space travel and Mars, including low temperature, ultraviolet and ionizing radiation, low atmospheric pressure and exposure to Martian regolith (the loose, dusty rock material on its surface). The conidia of A. calidoustus, which had been isolated from NASA cleanrooms, tolerated these harsh tests, and only the combination of extreme low temperature and high radiation was able to kill the fungus, the researchers found. “Microbial survival is not determined by a single environmental stress but rather by combinations of stress tolerance mechanisms,” Venkateswaran said.

The study positions A. calidoustus as a strong candidate for a microbe that could survive the extreme clean conditions of the spacecraft associated environments, hitch a ride in a spacecraft and persist on robotic systems exploring the Martian surface. It builds on previous studies that have identified bacteria and fungi in NASA spacecraft-associated surfaces after decontamination. 

“Together, these investigations help refine NASA’s planetary protection strategies and microbial risk assessment approaches for current and future space exploration missions,” Venkateswaran said.

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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of over 38,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.   
   
ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to all audiences.

 

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Journal

Applied and Environmental Microbiology