In terms of biomedical research progress, 2018 was a quieter year than some of its predecessors. The biggest news of the year may lie in changes in the way research – a deeply human endeavor – is conducted, setting the stage for the breakthroughs of tomorrow.

Researchers from The Jackson Laboratory have developed Alzheimer's disease (AD) model mice that were identical in the known AD risk gene they carried, but differed in the rest of their genome. The team hopes to use the animals to understand genetic factors that interact with known familial risk genes.

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me," F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his short story "All the Sad Young Men," to which Ernest Hemingway had a character in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" reply "Yes, they have more money." There is something of an analogous argument going on about longevity.

Scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have demonstrated that by suppressing the proliferation of KRAS-mutant cells, they were able to set up an immunosurveillance program that allowed natural killer cells to target KRAS-driven tumors.

In looking for ways to culture gut bacteria, researchers at Northeastern University have discovered that multiple species of gut bacteria are able to either produce or consume gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory nervous system of the mammalian nervous system. 

Researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute have analyzed intratumoral T cells in several cases of colorectal and ovarian tumors. Infiltrating T cells are a positive prognostic factor in both tumor types, but both tumor types also show a relatively low response rate to checkpoint blockade. Nevertheless, the team showed that only a low proportion of the killer T cells infiltrating the tumors recognized tumor antigens. 

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a smartphone app that was able to estimate hemoglobin levels by analyzing images of fingernail beds, creating, they wrote, an "on-demand system [that] enables anyone with a smartphone to download an app and immediately detect anemia anywhere and anytime."

SAN DIEGO – Results from the phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled BELIEVE and MEDALIST trials presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting over the weekend showed that the experimental red blood cell maturation drug luspatercept (Celgene Corp./Acceleron Pharma Inc.) reduced the need for transfusions in two different indications.