Three medical leaps that could transform disease treatments

More than once last year, researchers described leaps in medical science that were so breathtaking, and held so much potential for patients, that they immediately joined the list of fields to watch in the year ahead. In most cases, the work was, and is, at an early stage and its success far from certain. But some may go down in history for transforming how medicine is done.

Often, medical science surges ahead when different areas converge. That's the case with genome editing, which gives scientists the extraordinary ability to rewrite genes in living organisms. At the heart of the process are enzymes that can sever DNA at chosen locations. But to be useful, it required advances in computational genetics, and exquisite techniques to manipulate biological cells.

Then there is the microbiome, the name given to the community of microbes that live in and on our bodies. The trillions of bacteria that live in our guts, for example, influence our development, our metabolism, and our risk of scores of diseases. The prospect of treating, or preventing disease, through manipulating the microbiome, encouraging bugs here, and fewer there, is a radical departure for medicine that looks entirely realistic.

Cost is one of the greatest barriers to medical progress, so the falling price of genetic sequencing was bound to have an impact. Perhaps its most exciting application is the creation of gene profiles for tumours, which can be used to tailor therapies for individual patients. There is a long way to go, but solid progress has already been made.

Over the next year and more these three tantalising areas may prove their worth, be superseded by better approaches, or fail spectacularly. Whatever the outcome, they are ones to watch.