Neurodivergent Biochemistry
Neurodivergent biochemistry fundamentally about epigenetics.
Epigenetics describes how biological systems regulate gene expression. It determines which genes are activated or suppressed so that the body can produce the specific proteins required for a given function, context, or developmental stage.
Genes contain instructions.
Proteins are the functional units that carry out virtually every microscopic process in the body.
What has not previously been done is the systematic organization of protein inductions into functional frameworks that explain how epigenetic shifts alter gene activity and protein production at the systems level, rather than at isolated molecular or pathway scales.
Kitzerow identified two distinct, coordinated mechanisms of protein regulation:
• BioDials: a continuous, baseline flow of protein synthesis that supports typical development, physiological function, and tissue maintenance across time.
• BioToggles: a stress-responsive reallocation of protein production that prioritizes survival over development. These reallocations occur across five integrated systems: immune, metabolic, cellular repair, nervous system, and genetic regulation.
No existing biological model categorizes protein inductions in this manner or maps epigenetically driven gene activity into coherent, system-level functional frameworks.
The BioDials, BioToggles, and the structured relationships between them that define Neurodivergent Biochemistry are original contributions developed by Kitzerow.
What is Neurodivergent Biochemistry?
Neurodivergent Biochemistry looks at how the body's survival systems, genetics, and environment work together to shape development, health, and learning in all forms of neurodivergence. At its core are the BioToggles (survival switches) and BioDials (timing systems) that control which proteins the body makes and when. When a BioToggle is switched on, the body changes its priorities, focusing on protection instead of growth. This creates predictable patterns in traits, behavior, and health often seen in neurodivergents.
Neurodivergent Biochemistry and An Allostatic Existence
Sometimes the stress switches (BioToggles) don't flip back after the stress passes. Instead of returning to baseline, they remain engaged. This keeps the body stuck in allostasis, constantly trying to restore balance but never fully reaching it. This disrupts the body's natural flow of protein synthesis. When Biologgles stay locked, the BioDials that normally regulate typical development and typical function (day-night cycles, developmental stages, and age-related rhythms) can't run properly. The result is a chronic diversion of resources: proteins that should support typical development and typical function are suppressed, while stress-related proteins stay prioritized. Over time, this imbalance drains energy, creates wear on multiple systems, and alters both development and function in predictable biochemical patterns. I call this Neurodivergent Biochemistry.
Neurodivergent Biochemistry Framework
Delineates and organizes data on how the body's stress-response regulatory systems (BioToggles) and timing-based protein synthesis mechanisms that sustain the biochemical flow-state of life (BioDials) operate in a feedback loop as part of the allostatic survival response. When stress disrupts the flow-state, BioToggles flip and activate effectors such as epigenetic redox-sensitive shunts, which epigenetically change which proteins are turned on and off to participate in survival mechanisms that work to restore baseline and protect those that need to be conserved.his process exists to keep us alive during situational BioToggle flips, but when BioToggles become stuck or genetically locked, the shunts remain persistently engaged, diverting resources away from typical BioDial function toward survival turbo-mode mechanisms. This long term shift produces the predictable biochemical patterns within epigenetic redox-sensitive protein shunts, underlying neurodivergence and its comorbid conditions, as mapped through the BioGene Network
These changes lead to:
Atypical development
Atypical function
Wear and tear over time
Why Is There So Much Variation in Phenotypes?
Neurodivergence can be understood as a prolonged state of allostasis, a continuous effort to maintain internal stability under stress that gradually alters physiological function and development.
My framework identifies five categories of regulatory systems, or BioToggles, that maintain biochemical balance within the body: the immune system, metabolism, cellular repair, the nervous system, and genetic regulation. Each BioToggle monitors and restores its own baseline while interacting with the others through feedback loops. When one system is stressed, resources are reallocated across these networks through epigenetic redox-sensitive protein shunts, which act as biochemical effectors to restore equilibrium.
Phenotypic variation depends on several key variables:
- Which BioToggle is active
- Immune system – protects against pathogens (e.g., viruses, bacteria)
- Cellular repair – responds to physical trauma (e.g., wounds, tissue damage)
- Metabolism – prevents energy or nutrient failure (e.g., diabetic coma, starvation)
- Nervous system – preserves neurological integrity (e.g., stroke, seizure)
- Genetic regulation – maintains genomic stability (e.g., replication errors, epigenetic dysregulation).
- The duration of activation
- Situationally flipped: Temporarily activated in response to an environmental or biochemical stressor and capable of returning to baseline once resolved. Acute and resolves.
- Chronically stuck: Persistently active due to prolonged stress exposure or disrupted feedback regulation due to gene mutations in allostatic proteins, or overloaded system, leading to sustained biochemical imbalance. Stuck and results in allostatic overload over time.
- Genetically locked: Permanently altered through genetic mutations that impact the regulatory system resulting in set point deviations or ineffective regulatory system function. Lifelong and does not resolve.
- The developmental stage during which activation occurs
- Which BioDial processes (time-regulated protein synthesis) are affected
- Circadian rhythm: Daily regulation of protein synthesis that maintains physiological balance in the body
- Circannual cycles: Seasonal regulation of protein synthesis that coordinates metabolism, immunity, and repair with environmental and energetic demands during the change of seasons
- Development: Time-regulated progression from childhood through adulthood
- Aging and repair: Time-regulated cell turnover that protects barriers and repairs the body as part of natural processes
- The specific biochemical pathway that is disrupted
- The downstream physiological impact of the dysregulation
Together, these factors explain why individuals with similar genetic or diagnostic profiles may exhibit different traits, severities, or comorbidities within the neurodivergent spectrum. This is a systems biology explanatory framework: Neurodivergence isn't genetically homogeneous but mechanistically unified.
-
Required Background Knowledge
Central Dogma of Molecular Biology Expanded
Each gene holds the instructions for making one protein (and different isoforms, or "flavors," of it) that are "made to order" for the conditions needed.
What are Proteins?
Think of the body's functional blueprint, its gene-coded biochemical network, as a complex conveyor belt system. Each protein is a worker carrying out a specific job. Every single function in the body is managed by one of these workers.
BioDials and the Kinetic Flow-State (Dynamic Equilibrium)
Typically, there is a steady kinetic flow of proteins being created to keep the body typically developing and typically functioning.
This flow state is regulated by the BioDials through daily, seasonal, developmental, and age-related timing rhythms.
Stress and Epigenetics
Cellular stress interrupts this flow, flipping BioToggles and activating "turbo mode" to restore baseline. This adaptive state is called allostasis. In allostasis, proteins needed for the stress response are turned on, I call these allostatic proteins. While the creation of other proteins are shut down to conserve resources and protect certain vital functions. This process (epigenetics) helps us survive by shifting into "emergency mode." | call these shifts Epigenetic Redox-Sensitive Shunts.
-
The BioToggles: How They Were Identified and How Each Functions as a Regulatory System
The BioToggles are the five regulatory systems that emerged when I mapped raw UniProt protein induction patterns and compared them with the structural components of a regulatory system described in the NCBI Bookshelf section on homeostasis. When I cross indexed proteins under different categories of stress exposures, the same clusters appeared consistently.
Each cluster functioned as a complete regulatory system with its own set point, sensors, error detector, controllers, and effectors.
1. Set Point: the target range for physiological parameters.
2. Sensor: Detects deviations from the set point.
3. Error Detector: compares the sensor data to the set point.
4. Controller: Processes information and signals effectors.
5. Effector: Executes corrective actions to restore the set point back to baseline.
These clusters became the BioToggles.
They describe categorical inductions that trigger allostasis and how epigenetic redox-sensitive protein shunts act as effectors to restore baseline.
BioToggle 1: Immune System
How it emerged
Immune related proteins consistently induced together across pathways involving antigen recognition, inflammatory signaling, and redox linked immune activity.Activation inputs: pathogens, inflammatory cues, antigen exposure, immune load
BioToggle 2: Metabolites (plus or minus)
How it emerged
Proteins involved in metabolic balance, nutrient sensing, substrate availability, and redox regulated metabolic pathways formed a unified induction pattern.Activation inputs: low metabolite levels, high metabolite levels, nutrient imbalance, metabolic stress
BioToggle 3: Cellular Repair
How it emerged
Proteins responsible for structural repair, debris clearance, membrane rebuilding, lysosomal activity, and mechanical strain clustered together as a coherent repair domain.Activation inputs: mechanical damage, cellular strain, structural compromise, debris accumulation
BioToggle 4: Nervous System
How it emerged
Proteins regulating neurotransmitters, synaptic balance, sensory processing, and neural redox shifts formed a unified neural stress response cluster.Activation inputs: psychological stress, sensory overload, emotional demand, neuroinflammatory cues
BioToggle 5: Genetic Regulation
How it emerged
This toggle formed from proteins involved in circadian rhythm coordination, CLOCK and BMAL timing pathways, developmental timing signals, and regulation of protein synthesis. These induction patterns grouped together due to their shared timing based regulatory function.Activation inputs: circadian timing shifts, increased need for protein synthesis, timing mismatches, sustained physiological demand
-
The Origin of the BioDials
The BioDials emerged when I integrated circadian rhythm genes, developmental timing signals, and protein synthesis regulators into the biochemical network. When CLOCK, BMAL, and other circadian regulators were mapped alongside development and repair related genes, their induction patterns behaved differently from the categorical stress responses seen in the BioToggles. Instead of activating because of a stress input, they activated based on when the body needed to perform specific physiological or developmental tasks.
This showed that the system included a second regulatory layer that was not categorical but temporal.
The BioToggles regulate what the body does under different categories of stress.
The BioDials regulate when the body carries out essential processes.As I incorporated more timing related pathways, it became clear that these genes governed:
• circadian rhythm
• circannual cycles
• development
• age regulated processesThese processes operated as repeating cycles rather than categorical stress responses. Their activity rose and fell according to timing cues, developmental stage, and seasonal patterns. This temporal architecture revealed a second layer of regulation in the system, which became the BioDials.
The BioDials represent the body’s timing based control mechanisms that coordinate when physiological, developmental, and synthesis related processes should occur.