A look back at 2024’s science news
10th January 2025
By Sarah Perceval, Senior Manager, Healthcare and Science PR.
Although we’re very much looking forward to 2025, we’re taking a quick look back at some of the interesting science stories that captured our attention during 2024 and inspired Alto’s PhD level science writers for our own blog.
Here we revisit just a few…
24-hour Parkinson’s relief
The beginning of the year saw the launch of a brand-new treatment for Parkinson’s disease – the first to give patients round-the-clock relief from its associated motor symptoms and a far better quality of life.
A combination of two drugs, foslevodopa and foscarbidopa, Produodopa is steadily released into the bloodstream via a small wearable automatic pump 24-hours a day. People with Parkinson’s can often struggle with taking up to 20 pills a day to manage their symptoms which can worsen progressively through the day, particularly at night.
Produodopa very rapidly became available on the NHS in February 2024 – the first new Parkinson’s treatment in many years – for those patients not suitable for other options. This was incredibly good news, given that Parkinson’s UK describe this debilitating disease as “the fastest growing neurological condition in the world”.
Produodopa: A Breakthrough Treatment for Parkinson’s
Personalised skin cancer treatment
For Skin Cancer Awareness Month last May, we shone some light on recent skin cancer research developments, such as diagnosis using low-frequency Terahertz waves, and exciting new clinical trials. These trials included the world’s first mRNA-based personalised vaccine for melanoma.
At University College London Hospitals (UCLH), mRNA-4157 (V940) individualised neoantigen therapy, which is crafted to match the unique genetic blueprint of each patient’s tumour, entered final-stage Phase-3 clinical trials for the targeting this deadliest form of skin cancer.
This novel vaccine is being given alongside pembrolizumab (Keytruda) immunotherapy, which in a previous clinical trial phase demonstrated significant reduction in risk of recurrence or death, offering new hope for improved outcomes in melanoma treatment.
Breakthroughs in Skin Cancer Research: New Detection and Treatment Methods
Diving into deep sea oxygen
Defying conventional understanding of marine life and oxygen dynamics, last summer scientists at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) announced the discovery of ‘dark oxygen’. This is oxygen produced deep within the ocean abyss where no sunlight penetrates and hence no photosynthesis for its biological production.
Instead, dark oxygen is being produced by nodules of metal acting like batteries on the sea floor to split seawater into its component hydrogen and oxygen. The discovery of this previously unknown oxygen source has great implications on our understanding of global biogeochemical cycles and deep-sea habitats. Yet these could be threatened, as precious metals in these deep-sea nodules are targets for mining activities.
Such is the concern for the potential destruction of these unique ecosystems that over 900 marine sciences and policy experts from more than 70 countries have signed a petition highlighting the environmental risks and calling for a pause to deep-sea mining activity.
Deep Sea Oxygen Discovery: A Glimpse into the Abyssal Mysteries
Discovering the biological pathway of IBD
A groundbreaking study published in Nature in June identified a major genetic contributor to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This marked a pivotal moment in the field of gastroenterology, as the new understanding could offer hope for new therapies for this chronic autoimmune disorder which currently affects about 5% of the world’s population.
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute took a journey into a ‘gene desert’ known as chr21q22 and previously linked to IBD. Here they uncovered an enhancer that interacts with the promotor of the ETS2 gene, which was subsequently identified as a major cause of IBD.
This knowledge paves the way for new IBD treatment strategies. Targeting ETS2, the researchers proposed a novel approach to block its expression and curb inflammation associated with IBD by using drugs already available (MEK inhibitors) delivered directly to macrophages.
A Major Cause of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Uncovered
Advancing Alzheimer’s research
Dementia affects over 55 million people globally, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form that is growing significantly with our aging population. There is some good news though, because in 2024 there were over 100 ongoing clinical trials of therapies aimed at slowing or reversing this debilitating disease.
Notably in 2024, two anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), lecanemab and donanemab, were in the spotlight for their ability to slow cognitive decline in early-stage AD patients. These were the first drugs to be approved in the UK for treatment of early-stage Alzheimer’s and, although still unavailable on the NHS, they mark a key step in its treatment.
As well as mAbs, other treatments coming to the fore in 2024 were chaperone therapy, calcium channel blockers, stem cell therapies, and innovative antioxidant systems, which all show promise in addressing the root causes of Alzheimer’s.
World Alzheimer’s Day: Promising Advances in Alzheimer’s Disease Research
A colossal science story!
Last but not least…although this story didn’t make our blog last year, it can’t be overlooked as it could be a big one! Colossal Biosiences has Jurassic Park-esque connotations as it aims to revive extinct species. Its landmark de-extinction project is the resurrection of the woolly mammoth!
In 2024, Colossal launched a non-profit foundation to fund other scientists trying to prevent the extinction of species. Among its first grants, was Australian conservation research into using gene editing to help birds adapt to their changing habitats.
Given the debate around the ethics of gene editing, it’s good that guidance for its use are being released, for example the FDA’s Human Gene Therapy Products Incorporating Human Genome Editing, providing a comprehensive roadmap for innovators in this field.
Exciting advancements in the realm of genome editing!
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