Nature Biotechnology, Published online: 19 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41587-026-03116-1
RNovA is an open-search de novo peptide sequencing model.
A multimodal biomarker strategy to enhance diagnostic precision in neurodegenerative parkinsonism
Nature Medicine, Published online: 19 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04398-3
In a prospective cohort of 166 participants (and in a 63-participant validation cohort), dermal α-synuclein and 4-repeat tau seed amplification, combined with serum neurofilament light chain assays, were able to identify parkinsonian syndromes.
STAT+: Eli Lilly tops prominent rankings on pharma R&D performance
Here’s one more sign of Eli Lilly’s dominance in the drug industry: It took both top spots in a prominent ranking of pharmaceutical innovators and investors.
The index, produced by U.K.-based IDEA Pharma, ranks drug company laboratories on two different sets of criteria: innovation, which takes into account revenue from new products, new drug approvals, and major drug development events; and invention, which looks at the number of drugs a company has in development, its clinical trials, and its R&D investment, among other factors. IDEA is part of SAI MedPartners, a larger consultancy.
This is the first time that one company — in this case, Lilly — has ranked No. 1 in both categories.
The latest on Ebola: A travel ban and an old vaccine
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Good morning. STAT’s Breakthrough Summit West is today! It’s not too late to attend virtually. We’ve got a packed agenda including speakers like former FDA commissioner David Kessler, OpenEvidence founder Zachary Ziegler, and 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki. And, of course, a bunch of my talented STAT colleagues.
Opinion: I’m a heart transplant recipient. I’m haunted by ‘ghost approval’ for medication I need to survive
I’m a heart transplant recipient. The medications I take aren’t optional — they’re what keep my body from rejecting my heart.
So when my transplant team prescribed everolimus (Zortress), it wasn’t a suggestion. It was a medical decision.
STAT+: 1 in 8 women drink during pregnancy. Experts dread the consequences
The idea of drinking during pregnancy sounds like a generational punchline: Someone’s grandmother drank beer to fatten her fetus, another had a nightly martini to get a healthy amount of sleep — presumably unthinkable behavior in today’s America.
Yet after precipitous declines in the last 50 years, rates of alcohol use in pregnancy in the U.S. started climbing upward a decade ago. More than 1 in 8 pregnant adults reported drinking in the past month, according to STAT’s analysis of 2024 government data, making alcohol use a more common national phenomenon than gestational diabetes. Of those who drank, a quarter reported having four or more drinks in one sitting — binge drinking — in the prior month.
While rates of alcohol use in pregnancy are lower in the U.S. than those of several peer nations, the effects are all around Americans. Alcohol is the key driver of what are, by some estimates, the nation’s top neurodevelopmental conditions: fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, or FASDs.
The exact prevalence of FASDs is difficult to measure, but the most recent federally funded community studies have found as many as 1 in 20 school-aged children may have a disorder caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. By comparison, about 1 in 31 American children has autism, per recent estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not all fetuses exposed to alcohol have birth defects or go on to develop intellectual disabilities, researchers say. But every person born with an FASD was harmed by alcohol specifically. They worry this point is being glossed over as Americans question the conventional medical advice of avoiding all alcohol while pregnant.
Opinion: Britain embraces a Massachusetts experiment on tobacco regulation — just as the state might roll it back
The United Kingdom just adopted a tobacco-free generation law. Retailers can still sell tobacco to existing customers, but they will never be permitted to sell it to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009.
In Massachusetts, 24 communities already use a similar “nicotine free generation” (NFG) birthdate phaseout of tobacco sales, including cigarettes, vapes, and pouches. What seemed to some an oddball local experiment here has become the leading edge of a public health revolution. Britain adds 69 million people to the 659,000 Massachusetts residents protected by this tobacco endgame.
Medication Treatment of ADHD in Pediatric Epilepsy
Conditions: ADHD – Attention Deficit Disorder With Hyperactivity
Interventions: Drug: methylphenidate hydrochloride (Jornay PM)
Sponsors: Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.
Recruiting
Interventions: Drug: methylphenidate hydrochloride (Jornay PM)
Sponsors: Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.
Recruiting
Intensive-neurofeedback Protocol for Children With ADHD: A Proof-of-concept Study Comparing iAPF-personalized and Standard Theta-beta-ratio Training
Conditions: ADHD; Inattention; Hyperactivity; Impulsivity; Executive Dysfunction
Interventions: Behavioral: Standard TBR-NF; Behavioral: iAPF -TBR-NF
Sponsors: Bielefeld University; Philipps University Marburg
Recruiting
Interventions: Behavioral: Standard TBR-NF; Behavioral: iAPF -TBR-NF
Sponsors: Bielefeld University; Philipps University Marburg
Recruiting
Co-designing Adaptations of a Digital Mental Health Intervention (Wysa) for Adolescent Girls With Anxiety or Depression in Rural India
Conditions: Anxiety; Depression in Adolescence; Anxiety Disorder of Adolescence
Interventions: Behavioral: Digital psychosocial tool
Sponsors: Wysa; Wellcome Trust; Imperial College London; Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Milaan Foundation
Not yet recruiting
Interventions: Behavioral: Digital psychosocial tool
Sponsors: Wysa; Wellcome Trust; Imperial College London; Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Milaan Foundation
Not yet recruiting