In laboratories working at the frontier of molecular biology, scientists have completed the most detailed map yet of how proteins interact in cases of profound autism spectrum disorder — not to name a single cause, but to reveal a system. This work moves the field from cataloguing genetic risk factors to understanding how those factors function together inside living cells, offering a new foundation for both treatment and prediction. For the roughly one in thirty-six children in the United States affected by autism, and especially for those with its most severe presentations, this shift from a