Health 2025: The Year Medical Advances Restored "Hope" - Euronews' Selection of 5 Breakthroughs

1. 2025: The Year When the "Speed of Treatment Development" Began to Change

In recent years, the medical field has been grappling with two simultaneous realities.
One is the heavy burden on society due to the increase in infectious and chronic diseases, rising medical costs, and a shortage of medical personnel.
The other is the increasing number of moments when research elevates "might work" to "highly likely to work."

The five "hopeful advancements" highlighted by Euronews for 2025 share commonalities despite being in different fields.

• Personalization: Creating treatments tailored to the genetic mutations of individual patients

• Platformization: Expanding to other diseases using the same mechanism, like mRNA

• Model Evolution: Observing "human diseases" in human tissues, which were not visible through animal testing alone

• Repurposing: Weight loss drugs might also be effective for other diseases

Let's examine these five advancements in order. euronews

2. Breakthrough ①: Editing a Baby's DNA with "Personalized Design"—CRISPR for Rare Diseases

What Happened?

According to Euronews, in February 2025,a baby with a rare hereditary disease that could be lethalunderwent the world's first "personalized CRISPR gene editing treatment." The treatment directly corrected the faulty gene in the liver, reducing dependency on medication and significantly improving quality of life. The mother reported in November that the baby had "started walking." euronews+2National Institutes of Health (NIH)+2

This event was also announced by the U.S. NIH and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) as a form of "personalized gene editing treatment," emphasizing its potential to serve as a foundation for faster development of treatments for rare diseases. National Institutes of Health (NIH)+1

What Makes It "Hopeful"?

Rare diseases often face the challenge of pharmaceutical companies being unable to conduct large-scale development due to the small number of patients, leading to cases where treatments "do not exist."
The focus this time was on the idea of "assembling treatment tailored to this baby's mutation."

There are two key points.

• The drug itself was made for "one person" (traditionally, it was "for many")

• Gene editing could become a "platform" (potentially applicable to other rare diseases)

Nature also highlighted this case as a symbol of "personalized CRISPR treatment." Nature

Points to Note (Stay Calm Here)

Of course, this is not a treatment that "anyone can receive starting tomorrow."

• Long-term safety (unexpected outcomes of editing) needs to be monitored over a lifetime euronews+1

• It cannot be made the same way for all diseases (barriers of target genes, organs, administration methods)

• Cost and system design (who bears the cost and how it is reviewed) are major challenges

However, the significance of proving that "treatment can be assembled for one person" is great and could change the perspective on rare diseases.

3. Breakthrough ②: mRNA Vaccines Move to "Next Diseases"—Influenza, HIV, Cancer…

What Progressed?

mRNA technology rapidly spread with COVID-19, and Euronews highlights the progress in 2025, showcasing hundreds of clinical trials underway for "influenza," "HIV," "genetic diseases," "cancer," and more. euronews

In the HIV field, particularly, studies have shown that mRNA-based vaccines caninduce neutralizing antibodies, serving as a stepping stone to the next stage. euronews+2PubMed+2

Why mRNA Is Strong (A Simplified Explanation for Japanese Readers)

mRNA vaccines work by temporarily delivering a "blueprint of the antigen" to the body to trigger an immune response.
Their strength lies in the ease ofupdating the design to match pathogens or targets.

• They offer the potential for "quick improvements" for rapidly mutating viruses (like influenza)

• In cancer, there is also the direction of "personalized vaccines" tailored to the patient's tumor

Points to Note

• Good results in early trials ≠ confirmed practical application (large-scale trials are needed) euronews+1

• Manufacturing and distribution (cold chain, etc.), cost-effectiveness, and vaccination strategy design are necessary

• Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation countermeasures are as important as science

4. Breakthrough ③: Pig Organ Transplants Become More Realistic—The Impact of "171 Days Survival"

What Happened?

Euronews highlights the milestone in xenotransplantation, mentioning the world's first case wherea genetically modified pig liver was transplanted into a living human. The recipient was a 71-year-old man with liver disease and liver cancer caused by hepatitis B, where human liver transplantation and conventional surgery were difficult. The pig liver allowed him tosurvive for 171 days, demonstrating its potential to perform vital functions in the human body. euronews+2euronews+2

This case has also been introduced by hepatology societies (EASL) and academic journals (Journal of Hepatology). EASL-The Home of Hepatology.+1

Why Is It Hopeful?

Organ transplantation faces the fundamental problem of "more people in need than available organs."
If modified pig organs can function safely, it could potentially lead to

• shorter waiting periods

• alleviation of organ shortages
  . euronews+1

There Are Many Challenges

• How to suppress rejection (burden of immunosuppression)

• Infection risks (animal-derived pathogens, etc.)

• Ethics, regulation, and social acceptance

• Cost and provision system (who receives it and in what order)

While "getting closer" is a fact,there remains a long road to "widespread adoption."

5. Breakthrough ④: Observing Early Dementia in "Living Human Brain Tissue"

What Was New?

A UK research team conducted a study usingliving human brain tissueobtained from surgery, adding toxic proteins related to Alzheimer's disease (amyloid β) to observe in "real-time" how synapses (connections between nerve cells) deteriorate. Euronews introduces this as a "world first." euronews+2UK DRI+2

Why Is It Hopeful?

One of the challenges in dementia research isthe difficulty of directly verifying what is happening in the human brain.
There are "human-specific reactions" that cannot be fully replicated in animal models or cultured cells, which have lowered the success rate of drugs.

Using living human brain tissue allows

• direct observation of early changes

• easier testing of drug candidates in "environments closer to reality"
  . UK DRI+1

Points to Note

This is not a story where "treatment will be available soon."
However, it is an evolution of the research foundation that could increase the "hit rate" of drug development.

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