This year saw major scientific advancements that could eventually transform health care for millions of people around the world.
Euronews Health scoured leading medical journals to find the most promising – and sometimes offbeat – developments of the year, whether that’s pig organ transplants, weight loss drugs, or new vaccine technologies.
Here are five medical breakthroughs that gave us hope in 2025.
1. Baby’s DNA edited to treat a lethal rare disease
In February, a baby with a rare, often fatal genetic disorder underwent the world’s first personalised CRISPR gene-editing therapy, with scientists making changes directly to faulty genes in his liver.
While he will have to be monitored for the rest of his life, the treatment has reduced the baby’s dependence on medications to treat his disorder and greatly improved his quality of life. In November, the baby’s mother said he was starting to walk and hitting other milestones.
Researchers said the procedure’s success is a major breakthrough for CRISPR, indicating other patients with genetic disorders may benefit from this technology in the future.
2. Advancements in mRNA vaccine technology
Vaccines that use messenger RNA (mRNA) technology gained fame during the COVID-19 pandemic, and hundreds of clinical trials are now testing them for influenza, HIV, genetic diseases, and even cancer.
Several of these trials have already yielded promising early results. Over the summer, a pair of studies showed that mRNA-based HIV vaccines can induce neutralising antibodies, a key part of the immune response that helps defend cells against viral infections.
These developments indicate that mRNA technology could be an effective tool against many diseases – though larger studies with more people are needed to understand their full potential and limitations.
3. Pig organ transplants move closer to reality
The field of xenotransplantation, or the transfer of organs between species, saw several milestones this year – including thefirst genetically modified pig livertransplanted into a living human patient.
The patient was a 71-year-old man with liver disease caused by hepatitis B and liver cancer who could not receive a human liver or undergo traditional surgery. He survived for 171 days with the pig liver, showing the organ can perform essential functions in people.
Scientists believe that transplanting modified pig organs into people may one day help alleviate the shortage of human organ donations. In recent years, several living patients have also received pig kidneys, lungs, and hearts, with some surviving for weeks.
4. Scientists use living human brain tissue to model dementia
In a world-first, scientists in the United Kingdom used living human brain tissue to monitor the early stages of dementia.
The team exposed the healthy cells, which were collected during unrelated surgeries, to a toxic protein linked to Alzheimer’s – known as amyloid beta – to show in real time how it can destroy connections between brain cells.
The ability to directly study how dementia progresses in the human brain could make it easier to find treatments that will work against it, given that there is currently no cure.
5. Weight loss drugs show promise for certain other conditions
Studies found that blockbuster medicines used to treat obesity and diabetes may also help with a wide range of other conditions, including addiction and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
The benefits are still being tested, but scientists believe they are twofold: the drugs curb obesity, which is a risk factor for many other health issues, and they improve blood flow and reduce inflammation, which may affect the brain’s reward signals and impulse control.
However, the drugs are not cure-alls. In November, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk said its studies showed that semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy – had no effect on cognition and functioning among people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment.