By Frances Gatta
From personalized medicine to lab automation to gene therapy, both established and emerging areas of innovation are set to help shape the future of biology.
Let’s dive into ten of the biggest trending and emerging topics in the life sciences and biotech industry to watch in 2025.
1. Personalized medicine and cell therapies
Personalized medicine is a relatively new approach that aims to develop predictive, preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic solutions more customized to each person’s physiological, environmental, and behavioral characteristics. The field has grown with the emergence of cutting-edge technologies enabling researchers to uncover individual differences in disease processes, such as DNA sequencing, multi-omics, 3D tumoroid culture systems, and wireless health monitoring.
Autologous cell therapy, which involves using a patient’s engineered cells as medicine, is major evidence of personalized medicine’s research, clinical, and commercial success. Capable of treating many intractable cancers, including multiple myeloma, cell therapy has rapidly risen in the pharmaceutical market and regulatory pipeline in the last decade. Five CAR-T cell therapies have received five FDA approval since its first in 2017. Many in the space are exploring emerging methods like NK cell and allogeneic therapies, while others explore closed, modular manufacturing systems for scale-up of existing therapies. The global cell therapy market was valued at $4.74 billion in 2023 $5.89 billion in 2024.
2. Gene therapies
Gene therapy, a ground-breaking field of molecular medicine predicted to impact healthcare profoundly, is seeing a renaissance after a rocky start 20 years ago. This is thanks to advances in genetics and bioengineering like CRISPR-Cas9 editing, nanoparticle biological delivery systems, and highly efficient adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector technologies.
Though applications are currently limited to research, gene therapies hold immense potential for treating diseases caused by autosomal recessive disorders such as sickle cell anemia, acquired genetic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and viral infections such as AIDS.
This rapidly evolving field has produced remarkable breakthroughs in recent times, with the latest beingtreating children with deafness caused by a mutated otoferlin gene with AAV1-hOTOF gene therapy. In 2023, the FDA approved the first cell-based gene therapies for treating sickle cell disease and severe hemophilia A.
3. Lab sustainability
The life sciences industry continues to have a substantial environmental impact due to its heavy use of energy and resources. The pharmaceutical industry, in particular, is responsible for 4.4% of global emissions, and unaddressed, its carbon footprint is projected to triple by 2050. As advocates for a better world through science, researchers are often also passionate about mitigating climate change and its far-reaching impacts on human and ecosystem health. Where possible, they’re seeking to limit hazardous, consumable, and packaging waste; improve energy efficiency in the lab; and extend the life cycle of their tools before disposal or recycling.
In response, research organizations and industry members like Thermo Fisher Scientific are prioritizing scientific innovaiton and creating labeling systems to help scientists understand a product’s sustainability profile more transparently. Modern sustainable design approaches are paying off with more environmentally sustainable products, such as DynaGreen™ Protein A Magnetic Beads, that can reduce environmental impact without sacrificing scientific quality.
4. De-extinction science and paleogenomics
A few decades ago, the idea of assembling a genome with or otherwise extracting meaningful genetic information from samples like 19th century museum specimens, Egyptian mummies, and prehistoric bones seemed like science fiction – as did concepts like “de-extinction” that would seek to bring long-gone species back to life for ecological purposes. For context, even in modern forensic science applications, bone samples of even 20 years old are some of the most difficult for reliable DNA analysis.
Scientists like Svante Pääbo, 2022 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology recognized for his pioneering work in sequencing the Neanderthal genome, and the arrival of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has brought these once far-fetched ideas into exciting reality.
Today’s scientific instruments and technologies make it possible to prepare, purify, and analyze more delicate and degraded samples than ever before. Research teams have already sequenced and published the genomes of at least 8,000 ancient individuals. As the field continues to grow, so do the prospects of shedding new light on our evolutionary history, genetic factors for disease risk, and more.
5. More complex, biologically relevant cancer research models with tumoroid culture
More than 90% of potential anti-cancer drugs fail in clinical trials, often due to the heavy limitations of 2D pre-clinical models that rely on traditional immortal tumor lines. These models struggle to accurately replicate the complex environment and biological processes within real-life patient tumors, limiting their clinical translatability. 3D culture tumoroid models, on the other hand, are emerging as excellent alternatives that can more accurately reflect the physiological behaviors and characteristics of cancer cells, closing the gap between laboratory and clinical settings.
Tumoroids, also called tumor organoids or tumor-like organoids, are complex 3D culture models sourced from primary tumors obtained from patients. Tumoroid setups have been DIY for some time, with a steep learning curve and spotty reproducibility. But newer tools like the Gibco™ OncoPro™ Tumoroid Culture Medium Kit are making tumoroid systems more accessible and standardized between research groups. These biologically relevant cancer research models have big potential to accelerate strides in cancer drug development and personalized medicine.
6. mRNA-based therapeutics
After decades of research, mRNA-based therapeutics came into the spotlight with the launch of mRNA-based SARS-CoV-19 vaccines and have proven themselves as a safe, easy-to-produce, targeted, versatile, and effective drug class. mRNA-based therapy also shows promise in treating diseases currently difficult to treat, such as metabolic genetic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and cancer.
The emergence of commercially successful mRNA-based therapies is expected to pave the way for a new generation of nucleic acid medicines.
7. Lab automation
Lab automation can improve the quality and reproducibility of results, support clinical translation in a closed-system environment, and improve researcher efficiency, speed, and productivity. New, exciting options are emerging fast – offering everything from GMP compliance to AI-powered analysis and all-in-one, hands-off workflow completion. Likewise, the benchtop footprint of advanced instruments are shrinking as materials and engineering technologies advance.
Automated tools and systems will be key to the clinical manufacturing future, expanding the field’s ability to both “fail fast” in R&D for processes like drug candidate screening and to scale up quickly on what works – potentially breaking the bottleneck for lifesaving therapies like mRNA vaccines, cell therapies, and more.
8. Science entrepreneurship
The commercialization of scientific research enables researchers to move their findings into innovative products and services with potential to transform public health. Though pharmaceutical funding significantly dropped in 2023 compared to previous years, it was still a strong year for the industry. As competition for innovation strengthens, experts predict expansive deal-making in sectors with substantial increases in innovation.
Fortunately, the government and private investors are increasingly interested in supporting scientific research and commercializing innovative products and technologies, creating an ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurship in the life sciences industry.
9. AI-powered data analysis
The AI revolution is changing our relationship with the world around us. The increasingly data-rich life sciences industry is a strong beneficiary. The AI in life science analytics market size was valued at $1.5 billion in 2022 and is predicted to reach $3.6 billion by 2030.
Predominantly impacting biomedicine and healthcare, AI-powered data analysis is enabling scientists and clinicians to analyze vast and complex data sets quickly and accurately. As the adoption of AI-powered data analysis increases in drug development, clinical trials, manufacturing, and basic research, the life science industry is set to experience unprecedented growth in many of its subsectors, especially precision medicine.
10. Multi-omics
Powered by advances in high-throughput technologies and informatics tools, multi-omics is deepening our understanding of human health and disease and, in turn, driving significant breakthroughs in biomedical research.
By integrating distinct information about the biological system from omics, including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, multi-omics provides researchers with a comprehensive view and analysis of complex biological processes that help them more precisely classify diseases, identify biomarkers of health and disease, and discover new drug targets.
As a relatively new computational approach, multi-omics technologies have predominantly existed as research tools. Their evolution into clinical applications shows the potential to drive personalized disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
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