The cardiomyositis that is a rare adverse effect of mRNA-based COVID vaccines is due to immune cell activity as a result of increased levels of the chemokines CXCL10 and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Blocking CXCL10 and IFN-γ could prevent muscle cell damage in cell culture, and cardiomyositis in animal models. The findings, reported in the Dec. 10, 2025, issue of Science Translational Medicine, suggest a way of mitigating the risk of cardiomyositis.

Epilepsygtx Ltd. has raised a $33 million series A to fund a phase I/IIa trial of EPY-201, a gene therapy for treating drug-resistant focal epilepsy.

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur have developed a vaccine that spurred the production of autoantibodies to immunoglobulin E antibodies, protecting vaccinated mice from anaphylaxis.

The UK Health Security Agency has identified a new recombinant strain of mpox (formerly monkeypox) that contains elements of clade Ib and clade IIb of the virus, in a traveler who recently returned from Asia.

The first phase of the U.K. synthetic human genome project has successfully completed, realizing key steps in chromosome synthesis. The work has demonstrated a multistep method for transfecting mouse stem cells with native human chromosomes, where they are stably maintained and can be manipulated to replace native DNA with synthetic DNA. The engineered chromosomes can then be transferred into a human cell in place of the native chromosomes.

On Dec. 2, 2025, the FDA released draft guidance that could reduce the use of nonhuman primates (NHPs) in preclinical testing of monoclonal antibodies. According to the guidance, which the FDA released for the purpose of soliciting comments, “In general, studies longer than 3 months in nonrodent species (e.g., NHPs, dogs, and mini-pigs) are not warranted to evaluate toxicities … when data from 3-month studies are supplemented with a weight-of-evidence (WoE) risk assessment.”

Australian researchers have found a drug combination that can bypass the cellular defenses in neuroblastoma that lead to relapse, and the discovery could lead to better treatment strategies for children whose cancers have stopped responding to standard chemotherapy.

2025 has been the most challenging year in the efforts to fight HIV since at least the advent of antiretroviral therapy. In a report on “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response,” released last week ahead of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) described “a global system in shock” by sharply reduced funding from the U.S. and other wealthy nations. Scientifically, for now, progress is ongoing. To mark World AIDS Day, Nature published three independent studies on HIV.

A significant share of the risk and heritability of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is explained by rare genetic variants. A study led by scientists from Aarhus University in Denmark has uncovered their weight in this condition and identified three variants that will help to better understand their role, the risk of developing it, or its comorbidities, in contrast with the common and more frequent variants associated with ADHD.

It’s the biological resource that keeps on giving, and now UK Biobank has released the final tranche of data on the levels of 249 metabolites in the blood of its half a million participants.