Elissa Welle was a news reporter for The Transmitter from 2023 to 2024, where she covered neurodegeneration and a smorgasbord of other basic neuroscience research. Before joining the newsroom in late 2023, she worked as an intern reporter for Reuters, Nature, STAT News and The Detroit Free Press. She has also written for The Chronicle of Higher Education and her alma mater’s student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. Her days as a scientist were spent designing and fabricating tiny electrodes for single-neuron electrophysiology recordings.

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Research image of brain cells involved with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) illuminated through genetic tools

Allen Institute sets sights on treatments for five brain diseases

The Brain Health Accelerator program aims to harness single-cell transcriptomics and cell-type-specific genetic tools to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases, Lewy body dementia and ALS.

By Calli McMurray
2 June 2026 | 5 min read
Illustration of spiny mouse.

Learning why spiny mice play well with others

Aubrey Kelly studies the gregarious mammal to explore how the brain controls complex social behaviors “akin to friendship.”

By Hannah Thomasy
2 June 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of human thalamus.

Autism-linked genes expressed in thalamus make an impact, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 1 June.

By Jill Adams
2 June 2026 | 2 min read