Skip to content
Stay curious ↗

Follow your curiosity.

Try “brain”, “genomics”, or another subject you follow.

Today/Drug Development
Drug Development · The big question

Alzheimer's Research is Surging, But Clinical Challenges Remain

[New therapies and ongoing clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease].

PubMed1 min readAI-assisted summary
Editorial illustration for [New therapies and ongoing clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease].
Editorial illustration

Summary

Alzheimer's disease research is entering a busy new chapter. As of early 2025, scientists are running more than 180 clinical trials to find better ways to treat the condition. Much of the recent spotlight has been on immunotherapies, which harness the immune system to fight the disease. Specifically, drugs like lecanemab and donanemab target and reduce clumps of a protein in the brain called amyloid beta. These protein clumps, known as plaques, are a major hallmark of Alzheimer's.

While clearing these plaques is a significant scientific step, researchers are careful to note the limitations of current treatments. For patients in the early stages of the disease, these amyloid-targeting drugs only modestly preserve memory and daily functioning. Because of this, scientists are also testing treatments aimed at tau, another protein that causes problems in the Alzheimer's brain. Early studies of tau-targeted vaccines, antibodies, and genetic tools called antisense oligonucleotides show that these experimental treatments are generally well tolerated by patients.

Why it matters.

The sheer volume of ongoing trials reveals a major shift in how the medical field approaches Alzheimer's disease. Scientists are testing a wide variety of strategies across different stages of the illness, even reaching out to at-risk populations before severe symptoms ever appear. This diversified strategy offers hope for aging populations worldwide, suggesting that future medicine might tackle the disease from multiple angles before it can cause permanent damage.

However, discovering new biology is only half the battle. A major hurdle remains in bringing these scientific breakthroughs into everyday medical care. Researchers caution that despite a vastly expanded understanding of the genetics, biological markers, and physical brain changes associated with Alzheimer's, there is a significant lack of implementation in real-world clinical practice. Bridging the gap between the laboratory and the local clinic will be essential to ensure these new therapies actually benefit patients.

From the source

The story in numbers.

Ongoing clinical trials
>180
Year of clinical landscape assessment
2025
Keep the context

Follow the evidence.

This AI-assisted summary is a starting point. Read the original reporting for its methods, scope, and limitations.

Your next discovery.

Keep exploring ↗
Drug Development

A $122M boost for a fast, inside-the-body approach to cell therapy

Create Medicines recently secured $122 million to advance a new class of treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. They specialize in CAR-T cell therapy, a treatment that engineers the immune system to fight disease. But instead of the traditional method of removing cells from a patient to alter them in a lab, Create Medicines is developing therapies that work entirely inside the body, a process known as "in vivo" treatment. To achieve this, the therapy uses tiny fat bubbles called lipid nanoparticles to deliver messenger RNA, or mRNA, into the patient. Think of mRNA as a set of biological instructions. Once delivered, these instructions directly teach the patient's existing immune cells, including T cells, natural killer cells, and myeloid cells, to reprogram themselves into disease fighters. The startup has already dosed more than 50 patients, giving it the largest clinical dataset in the in vivo field. They recently began an early-stage clinical trial for an experimental therapy designed to attack solid tumors that carry a specific protein called HER2. Alongside this cancer research, the company is testing other treatments that target proteins called CD19 and BCMA to help patients with autoimmune conditions.

BioPharma Dive1 min read
Drug Development

Supreme Court Protects Access to Common Abortion Pill

The United States Supreme Court has decided to preserve access to mifepristone, a medication used in the most common method of abortion. By rejecting recent restrictions proposed by lower courts, the Supreme Court has ensured that patients can still obtain this widely used drug while an ongoing lawsuit continues to make its way through the legal system. Under this current legal order, patients do not need an in-person visit with a doctor to get the medication. Instead, they are permitted to continue receiving mifepristone directly from pharmacies or through the mail. This ruling maintains the existing distribution methods, meaning that access is expected to remain uninterrupted at least into the following year as further legal proceedings unfold.

STAT News1 min read
Drug Development

Living Implants: Engineered Bacteria Trapped in Gel Fight Infections

What if a medical implant could sense an infection and fight it off automatically? Researchers have created exactly that with a new technology called an "implantable living material." To build it, scientists used a specialized, water-based gel known as a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel. This material acts as a tiny, flexible fortress. It is uniquely stiff and tough, designed to hold genetically engineered bacteria safely inside for up to six months without them escaping into the surrounding tissue. Inside this protective gel, the researchers trapped a modified version of E. coli bacteria to act as molecular guards. These engineered microbes are programmed to detect chemical signals given off by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a dangerous pathogen that frequently causes infections around artificial joints. When the trapped bacteria sense the invader, they trigger a targeted self-destruct mechanism. This intentional cellular explosion releases a powerful antibacterial protein that easily passes through the microscopic pores of the gel to kill the infection outside. The research team tested this system in mice with artificial joint infections. Over a three-day treatment period, the living implant significantly reduced the amount of infectious bacteria compared to non-therapeutic controls. By keeping the helpful microbes physically contained while allowing their medicine to flow out, the researchers have found a clever way to turn living cells into localized drug factories.

GEN2 min read

A little science goes a long way.

Clear, thoughtful biotech briefings. In your inbox three times a week.

Stay curious. Subscribe free ↗