Small trials transplanting dopamine neurons into people with Parkinson's disease showed early promise in 2026, and the approach was available to patients in Japan under government oversight.

Researchers increasingly think there may be two main subtypes of Parkinson's—a 'brain first' version that starts in the olfactory bulb, and a 'body first' version that originates in the gut.

A clinical trial is underway in 2026 to help kidney transplant recipients avoid a lifetime of immunosuppressing drugs

A planned clinical trial to treat a rare lysosomal storage disorder in utero has buoyed hopes of providing prenatal gene therapies, but it was still awaiting FDA approval to begin enrolling patients as of May 2026.

Scientists using gene therapy recently managed to regenerate retinal cells in the lab—a breakthrough for mammals that could potentially lead to future treatments for human retinal diseases.

New eye implant clinical trial recruiting in 2026

When dopamine-producing brain cells die, it disrupts the basal ganglia, a brain region that acts as the traffic controller for movement.

More than 200 drug trials for Alzheimer's have failed or been abandoned since 2010, but two anti-amyloid infusion medications have netted FDA approval in recent years.

The benefits of deep brain stimulation for treating substance use disorders remain uncertain amid inconsistent results for this surgical implant intervention.

Stem cell therapy has shown promise in treating spinal injuries in an early-stage clinical trial.

Watch a demo of how a patient with ALS was able to operate his iPad using a brain-computer interface two years after it was implanted.

Experimental minimally invasive brain-computer interfaces may eventually help people with severe paralysis take actions like clicking a mouse with their thoughts and may be implanted via blood vessels.

In 2023, the FDA approved gene therapy for sickle cell disease, enabling one-time infusion bespoke treatments that use a patient's own stem cells to effectively cure a painful condition that disproportionately affects people of African American descent.

Brain implants are restoring movement and communication in early human trials

A physician with a rare and deadly disease saved his own life by identifying an existing medication that he repurposed for his condition, and now he's using AI to try to do the same for other patients.

Dysfunctional mitochondria may be a cause of Parkinson's, according to a growing body of research in rodents.

Chinese scientists transplanted a pig lung into a human being in 2025—but it had to be removed.

In August 2025, brain-computer interface company Synchron released a video of an ALS patient in its clinical trial controlling an iPad using only his thoughts.

GLP-1 drugs are under investigation for treating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and drug addiction.

Read why one man agreed to get a pig kidney in 2025 to replace his own failing organ

Brain implants from companies such as Neuralink, Blackrock Neurotech, and Synchron must have their decoders regularly recalibrated because each person's brain activity patterns shift over time.

One of the earliest brain-computer interfaces was the cochlear implant, designed to treat hearing loss by capturing sound and converting it into electrical stimulation patterns.

Deep brain stimulation helps manage movement in patients with neurological disorders

The US FDA considered mitochondrial replacement therapy during 2014 hearings

‘Hope for Healing’: The first-ever use of an in utero stem cell treatment

Schizophrenia is being studied with pea-sized 'mini-brains'

Interface device implanted into ALS patients restored some of their abilities

Neural interfaces offer major medical potential but raise serious ethical concerns, including how to ensure the long-term maintenance of the devices if companies go out of business.

Predictive brain implants raise ethical concerns about patient autonomy after surgery since their constant monitoring and forecasting functions may blur the line between patient choice and device influence.

China was the first country to approve a brain chip to treat a disability: a skull-embedded device called NEO that translates thoughts into robotic hand movements for people with paralysis.

Explore different pig-to-human xenotransplantation possibilities, including using pig pancreatic cells for treating diabetes.

The 'Armamentarium' is a set of new gene therapy tools—including viruses that could shuttle therapies into the body—designed to fight brain diseases.

A scientist successfully treated her own breast cancer by injecting the tumor with lab-grown viruses.

Peptides like GLP-1 account for 31 of 370 new drugs approved by the US FDA between 2016 and 2023.

As of 2025, perfect synthetic replication of natural organs remains elusive

See how a novel neurological procedure that employs artificial intelligence restored a woman's speech almost 20 years after a stroke.

Discover how brain-computer interfaces create a direct link between the brain and external devices in this 1440 Originals video.

A new daily MS pill is seeking regulatory approval in 2026

Brain-reading devices that use electrode arrays to decode neural signals are helping paralyzed people control prosthetics that restore a sense of touch.

In 2026, the FDA proposed a novel approach to expedite reviews of gene therapies for patients with rare genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis, potentially bypassing the need for years-long clinical trials if approved.

Cross-species transplantation has been attempted in medicine for more than 300 years.

US FDA recently approved the first new schizophrenia drug in decades

Scientists may have discovered why gene-edited pig kidneys are rejected in humans

A first-of-its-kind clinical trial announced in 2025 taps livers from gene-edited pigs to clean blood.

Artificial intelligence may improve organ donation systems—and even organ health

The first successful organ transplant was performed in 1954

Using brain implants to restore vision

Somatic expansion, the lifelong growth of specific repeating DNA sequences, is being studied as a potential treatment target for Huntington's disease and other disorders.

Face and neck massages improve cerebrospinal fluid flow in mice, raising questions about potential applications for clearing abnormal protein buildup in patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

A new schizophrenia healthcare model is giving patients more of a role in shaping their own treatments, with good results.

Neuralink brain implants have enabled a paralyzed person to play video games