VOA慢速英语:Autism-Related Genes Discovered(翻译)

The human body has about 25,000 genes. Researchers already know of 65 genes they believe carry a risk for autism. Now, researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey have identified 2,500 more that could help create the conditions for autism.
人体一共约有25000个基因。科学家们已经知道其中65个基因有导致自闭症的风险。现在，新泽西州普林斯顿大学的研究人员又识别出了2500个可能帮助创造自闭症条件的基因。

The discovery is important because the genes could lead scientists toward finding a cause and, possibly, a treatment.
这项发现是非常重要的，因为这些基因可以帮助科学家们发现自闭症的原因，如果可能的话还有治疗方法。

Autism is a condition that makes it difficult for some people to communicate, learn and socialize.
自闭症会使患者交流、学习和社交都很困难。

Arjun Krishnan is a researcher at Princeton’s Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. He says researchers used what they called a machine-learning computer program to identify autism-related genes.
阿尔琼·克里斯南是普林斯顿大学路易斯-西格勒综合基因组研究所的研究员。他说，研究人员们用一种他们称为“机器学习”的计算机来编程识别与自闭症相关的基因。

Krishnan explains that the program identified similarities between brain-related genes and the 65 autism-risk genes.
克里斯南解释说，程序能够识别与大脑相关的基因和65个与自闭症有关的基因的相似之处。

Then, the program looked for other genes that are “friends” of both sets.
然后，程序就会寻找和二者相似的其他基因。

He says the process is like finding friends on Facebook.
他说，这就像是在脸书网上加好友。

And if Facebook wanted to find out who your friends are and wanted to suggest a friend for you, what they would do is find out who your friends are and then find out other people who are friends with those same people. And if they are, they are very likely friends of you, too.So that is how they give you suggestions of new friends you might know.We used a very, very similar strategy...
“如果脸书网想要找到你的朋友是哪些人，并为你推荐的话，首先就会找到你的朋友，然后看这些人的共同好友都有哪些。这些人就非常有可能也是你的朋友。所以他们就是这样给你推荐可能认识的人的。我们的策略是非常非常相似的……”

The strategy permitted researchers to find patterns within the brain’s huge circuitry.It showed that having genes that are “friends“ of both brain-related and autism-related genes can increase a person’s risk for autism.
这个策略让研究人员们在大脑的巨大回路中寻找模型。如果有基因和“大脑”与“自闭症”同时相关的话，这个基因就可能提高一个人患自闭症的风险。

The findings can also help researchers understand why one person may be only mildly affected with autism, while another is severely affected.
这项成果也能帮助研究人员理解为什么自闭症对不同的人影响程度也不同。

Olga Troyanskaya is a professor of computer science and genomics at Princeton.She says people’s entire sets of genes influence what kinds of symptoms they have.
奥加·特拉安斯卡亚是普林斯顿大学计算机科学和基因组方面的教授。她说人们的整体基因影响着表现出来的症状。

In other words, autism researchers need to consider not only individual genes, but also gene combinations.
换句话说，要想研究自闭症，不能只研究单个的基因，还要考虑基因的组合。

Researchers still have not found a way to diagnose autism, beyond just observing the child. But they hope this new research into gene patterns will lead to a way to diagnose very young children. Then they can be helped as soon as possible.
除了观察小孩的表现之外，研究额人员尚未找出诊断自闭症的方法。但是他们希望这项基因模型的最新研究结果能够帮助找到低龄病童的诊断方法。这样他们很快就会得到帮助了。

I’m Anne Ball.
安妮·贝尔为您报道。