It has been a tough year for medicine. The U.S. research enterprise has been scrambled by a series of political decisions with long-reaching consequences. But make no mistake: Science didn’t stop, and medicine has had its share of major advances.
As I have written for years, this is biology’s century — a period of unprecedented advancement in medical science driven by an explosion of data, an unprecedented level of biological understanding, and a flood of private-sector money. What makes 2025 unique is that these advances, from an innovation in biotech that saved a baby with an ultra-rare disease to the arrival of a potent new weapon in the war on HIV, came against the backdrop of government decisions that will limit even the most promising science in the future. Here is a look at what 2025 brought.
