Christopher Brian Dittrich

Keep Moving Forward: Daily TBI Digest Sunday, June 7, 2026 Good morning, friends. Pour the coffee, take the breath, and let's talk. Today's headlines are loud about one quiet word: consciousness: the idea that the door isn't shut just because somebody told you it was. I lived almost a full 30 days where nobody could promise what would remain. So, when the science starts saying "later than we thought" out loud, I lean in close. What's Moving the Needle Researchers at Stanford, with work...

June 5, 2026 30-Year Stall Ends: What UCSF's TRACK-TBI Network Phase II Trial Means for Brain Injury Recovery in 2026 Thirty years. That's how long traumatic brain injury drug development has been stuck. Three decades of "no approved pharmacological treatment for acute TBI." Three decades of families sitting in the same waiting room mine sat in back in 2008, being told the same sentence in the same gentle voice: we have to wait and see. The TRACK-TBI Network out of UCSF just opened a Phase...

Pediatric TBI recovery just got its first real biological fingerprint. Happy Tuesday! Researchers published findings this week from the Epigenetic Effects on TBI Recovery study, known as EETR. Children with traumatic brain injury show measurably different DNA methylation of the BDNF gene, the one tied to learning, memory, and how the brain rewires itself, compared to kids with orthopedic injuries. That difference is still measurable at 6 months, even at 12 months. If you have ever been the...