Research Finding

Costa Mesa, Calif. – October 02, 2026 -- Nearly 40% of women with postpartum depression showed a hyperfrontal/anterior cingulate cortex brain-activity pattern, more than double the 19.4% rate found in patients with major depression, according to new research from Dr. Daniel Amen and colleagues at Amen Clinics.

Brain scan comparison covers 26,135 patients across two depression groups

Researchers analyzed brain SPECT imaging scans from 58 women diagnosed with postpartum depression (PPD) and compared them against scans from 26,077 people with major depression. Each scan was classified into one of six brain-function categories: hyperfrontal/ACC, limbic, hypofrontal, toxic/diffuse low perfusion, brain trauma/acquired injury, or mixed patterns.

Jeollanam-do – September 25, 2026 -- Researchers at Chonnam National University have demonstrated that dichloromethane, a widely used industrial solvent, can directly drive amide bond formation between carboxylic acids and amines, offering manufacturers a cheaper and less hazardous alternative to conventional coupling reagents. The findings, led by Professor Sunwoo Lee of the Department of Chemistry, were published online on July 6, 2026, and appeared in Volume 148, Issue 27 of the Journal of the American Chemical Society on July 15, 2026.

Aurora, Colo. – September 20, 2026 -- A new study from the University of Colorado Anschutz Marcus Institute for Brain Health finds that irritability following chronic mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in military veterans stems from a combination of PTSD symptoms, chronic pain and difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments, not a single psychological cause.

Study of 124 veterans links irritability to three distinct factors

Published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, the research examined 124 military veterans, including 61 with chronic mTBI and 63 without any history of brain injury. Participants underwent standardized assessments measuring irritability, PTSD symptoms, chronic pain, balance and auditory processing, including speech-in-noise comprehension.

Singapore – September 17, 2026 -- Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have eradicated tumours in 75 per cent of tested preclinical models using pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) alone, without chemotherapy, after just four 30-minute sessions. The study, led by Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregón of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, was published in the journal Smart Medicine on September 17, 2026.

PEMF device already cleared Phase 1 human safety trials

The same PEMF device used in the study has completed Phase 1 clinical trials, confirming its safety in humans. The NUS team is now seeking partners to fund and conduct Phase 2 efficacy trials to evaluate treatment performance in patients.

South San Francisco, Calif. – September 15, 2026 -- Apeximmune Therapeutics said a peer-reviewed study published in Nature independently validates PLA2G2D as a novel immune checkpoint capable of overcoming resistance to anti-PD-1 cancer therapies, with the company's lead antibody AI-306 targeting an IND filing in the second quarter of 2027.

Two independent research teams identified the same target through different methods

Apeximmune's computational screen of more than 9,000 primary tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas ranked PLA2G2D as its top novel checkpoint candidate, ahead of PD-1 and CTLA-4 in the same analysis. Working separately and without knowledge of Apeximmune's program, researchers at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam used spatial proteogenomic analysis of melanoma patient samples with divergent outcomes and arrived at PLA2G2D as a top hit in dendritic cell and macrophage populations linked to poorer prognosis.