Going on trial

Recent articles

Illustration of a sheet of red and white pills, with the red pills arranged in the form of a question mark.

New template streamlines sharing clinical trial results

This month’s Going on Trial newsletter explores a new tool for communicating with clinical trial participants and their families, among other drug development news.

By Calli McMurray
31 October 2023 | 7 min read
A hand reaches from above to add a pill to a stack that is resting against the x-axis of a graph.

Looking at eye tracking’s potential for clinical trials

This month’s Going on Trial newsletter explores how eye tracking might be used beyond helping with diagnosis, among other drug development news.

By Calli McMurray
28 September 2023 | 6 min read
Illustration of a sheet of red and white pills, with the red pills arranged in the form of a question mark.

Trials test utility of EEG biomarkers for autism-related conditions

This month’s Going on Trial newsletter dives into an electroencephalography biomarker that could track the efficacy of treatments for dup15q and Angelman syndromes, among other drug development news.

By Calli McMurray
31 August 2023 | 7 min read
A hand reaches from above to add a pill to a stack that is resting against the x-axis of a graph.

How organ-on-a-chip models can help drug development

This month’s Going on Trial newsletter explores how organ-on-a-chip models could smooth the transition from preclinical to clinical trials, among other drug development news.

By Calli McMurray
31 July 2023 | 5 min read
Illustration of a sheet of red and white pills, with the red pills arranged in the form of a question mark.

Going on Trial: Gene therapy for Rett; return to arbaclofen

This month’s newsletter looks at the early safety data from the first gene therapy trial for Rett syndrome, among other drug development news.

By Calli McMurray
29 June 2023 | 6 min read
A hand reaches from above to add a pill to a stack that is resting against the x-axis of a graph.

Going on Trial: Epidiolex for autism; arbaclofen tests; pain monitoring

This month’s issue of Going on Trial takes a sneak peek at some early null results from a small trial of a cannabidiol-based drug for autism, among other recent drug developments.

By Peter Hess
30 May 2023 | 7 min read
Illustration of a sheet of red and white pills, with the red pills arranged in the form of a question mark.

Going on Trial: Serotonin drug; psilocybin phase 2; placebo response data

This month’s issue of the Going on Trial newsletter explores why it’s more fun to have a beer with friends than by yourself — and how that informs an ongoing clinical trial for autism.

By Peter Hess
28 April 2023 | 7 min read
A hand reaches from above to add a pill to a stack that is resting against the x-axis of a graph.

Going on Trial: Trofinetide approval for Rett; n-of-1 ASO therapies; cord-blood deals

This month’s issue of the Going on Trial newsletter examines personalized therapies for rare conditions, Acadia’s new drug for Rett syndrome and developments in a cord-blood program, among other autism-related drug trial news.

By Peter Hess
30 March 2023 | 8 min read
Illustration of a sheet of red and white pills, with the red pills arranged in the form of a question mark.

Going on Trial: Orphan drugs; CBD; bumetanide

This month’s newsletter takes a close look at the orphan drug program in the United States, several cannabis-based therapies and a secondary analysis of bumetanide, among other new developments in autism-related drug trials.

By Peter Hess
28 February 2023 | 7 min read
A hand reaches from above to add a pill to a stack that is resting against the x-axis of a graph.

Going on Trial: Arbaclofen reboot; cell implants; psilocybin microdoses

Going on Trial rounds up new developments in autism-related drug trials. This month we’re revisiting decade-old data from a trial of arbaclofen for fragile X syndrome and looking into a new implant-based approach to quelling seizures, among other treatment strategies.

By Peter Hess
25 January 2023 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Exclusive: Harvard University lays off fly database team

The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

By Claudia López Lloreda
13 August 2025 | 5 min listen

Chris Rozell explains how brain stimulation and AI are helping to treat mental disorders

Rozell and his colleagues, using deep brain stimulation and explainable artificial intelligence, have developed tools to help people with treatment-resistant depression.

By Paul Middlebrooks
13 August 2025 | 1 min read
Illustration of a musical staff with notes represented by neurons.

This paper changed my life: Abigail Person on birdsong, feed-forward circuits and convergent computations

By isolating specific neuron types involved in zebra finch birdsong, this 2002 Nature paper from Michael Fee and colleagues revealed elegant neural mechanisms controlling the timing of natural learned behavior.

By Abigail Person
12 August 2025 | 6 min listen