10/01/2026
What can a better understanding of the developing brain tell us about autism?
On the latest Heartbeat, Michael Lyon is joined by Dr. Károly Mirnics, dean and director of UNMC’s Munroe-Meyer Institute, for a conversation about what researchers are learning about autism, brain development and the complex interplay of genetics and environmental factors.
We also discuss a large UNMC-led study involving more than six million maternal-child health records. The research found an association between prenatal exposure to certain medications that can affect the body’s cholesterol-production pathway and a higher incidence of autism in children. Dr. Mirnics explains what the findings do — and do not — tell us, why cholesterol is important to the developing brain, and what questions researchers still need to answer.
Heartbeat is a KIOS conversation about medical science, research and the discoveries that touch our lives, produced in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Dr. Károly Mirnics discusses what researchers are learning about autism, including a study examining medications that affect cholesterol production during pregnancy.
