10 key trends you can expect in 2025

Before getting into today’s post, I wish all my readers a happy 2025. As we begin a new year, let us look at some advancements we can expect in the field of biology. With different advancements in various areas, 2024 was a fulfilling and content year for biologists.

2024 in a glance

Last year witnessed a number of discoveries in coral bleaching, bio-plastics, cancer research, CRISPR, animal conservation, and human evolution, among others. Let us not forget the groundbreaking discovery of miRNA for which 2 scientists got the Nobel prize in physiology.

Let us dive into the future and look at what advancements we can expect in Biology in 2025

1. CRISPR

CRISPR, a versatile gene-editing tool has been making a tremendous impact lately and is expected to boom in 2025.

The first ever CRISPR-based therapy, Casgevy was approved in 2023. Ever since a lot of progress has been made in this area. The year 2025 can expect to have many such FDA approvals with regard to a range of diseases including cancer, genetic diseases, viral infections, and autoimmune diseases. A lot of these therapies are currently under clinical trials and few others are in the drug discovery pipeline.

A noteworthy example of the progress of CRISPR is its use in improving the potency of CART-T therapy. From knocking out genes that target T cells to enhancing their ability to target cancer cells, CRISPR can help improve diagnostic and therapeutic techniques.

1. 2. AI in the medical field

With Artificial Intelligence just emerging, we are all heading towards general artificial intelligence. While AI will certainly not replace doctors, we can expect to witness AI aiding healthcare.

AI can help a doctor summarize a patient’s data when they come for a follow-up visit. This can save time and make the doctor-patient relationship more efficient.

In addition, AI can help doctors diagnose many diseases like sepsis, cancer, and other life-threatening conditions. AI-assisted medical imaging can help them.

1. 3. Reducing carbon footprint

With the current rise in global temperature and climate change on the headlines, reducing carbon footprint will undoubtedly be a major area of focus. A lot of companies and organizations have even been aiming for a net zero carbon footprint. Despite climate change creating havoc, on a positive note, we are globally trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

1. 4. Waste management

We have seen a tremendous increase in waste- agricultural, plastics, medical wastes, etc. We are generating them at a quick pace and struggle to keep up. We are researching different biological sources like bacteria to eat up plastic waste. But, this doesn’t seem enough as plastic pollution is growing at a rapid rate. Being a major problem, it will be worth it to invest in waste management. Here is a notable example-

With the origin of novel methods like pyro-metallurgy and hydro-metallurgy, we can reuse valuable metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, aluminum, iron, and manganese. This can prevent harmful metals from entering the environment.

1. 5. Multiomics

This is especially useful in the diagnosis of a wide range of diseases making it a potential advancement in 2025. Single-cell analysis is essential for prenatal diagnosis, early detection of diseases, and biomarker testing. Overall, multiomics can help us get a deeper understanding of human biology at a cellular level, essential for understanding the molecular mechanisms of diseases with greater accuracy.

1. 6. Synthetic biology

Synthetic biology could be a major advancement in 2025 by revolutionizing medicine with personalized therapies, accelerating vaccine development, and enabling sustainable agriculture through enhanced crops. It offers eco-friendly solutions like carbon capture and bioplastic production while advancing biocomputing and AI integration. These innovations promise to address global challenges.

1. 7. Personalized medicine

Thanks to CRISPR, we can now give personalized treatment to each patient. Gone are the days when we have a ‘1 treatment fits all’ strategy. We are slowly moving towards giving a tailor-made treatment based on the patient’s genetic makeup.

1. 8. Tumoroid models

Most anti-cancer drugs fail to clear clinical trials especially because their pre-clinical/ R&D stage was primarily based on 2D tumor cell lines. We currently do not have a 3D model to study the effect of these drugs. This problem is likely to be solved this year as we have the emergence of tumoroids, also known as tumor organoids. They are just like organoids but derived from the primary cancer cells of patients. These help us understand the anti-cancer effect better than the tumor cell lines as they can reflect upon the physiological aspects of the cancer.  This discovery could be a huge milestone in the drug discovery pipeline.

1. 9. Sustainable labs and equipment

The life sciences industry, especially the pharmaceutical industry is well known for its substantial use of energy and resources. As frontiers for a better world, researchers are trying to limit hazardous consumables and packaging wastes and improve their overall lab efficiency.

1. 10. Science entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is attracting a lot of researchers in the current times. Setting up your own start-up can help budding entrepreneurs bring their cutting-edge research products into the market. This will ensure that these commercially important products will reach the end users- patients or the public who actually need them.
With the number of biotech start-ups on the rise, science entrepreneurship is bound to boom in 2025.

2025 holds the promise of discoveries that could change our world. The future is closer than we think. Which of these advancements do you think will hold the spotlight in 2025?