1. No more viral infections Viruses are nasty things. They can’t be treated like bacteria, so when you get a cold, you generally just have to tough it out and suffer. A new antiviral drug called DRACO that targets virus-infected cells might be able to tackle all viruses, no matter what kind, and wipe them out completely while leaving healthy cells alone. If the research pans out, it’ll be bye bye colds, SARS, polio and everything else you don’t want to catch. Read more

2. Sunburn? What sunburn? Ever had a radiation burn? Sure you have; that’s what a sunburn is. Most plants and animals don’t get sunburned, thanks to an enzyme that they produce called photolyase, which (it turns out) goes in and repairs all that DNA damage caused by ultraviolet radiation. Our bodies haven’t figured out how to make this stuff, which is really too bad, but now that scientists have figured out how it works, we might be able to put it into a lotion or something, where it would actually repair our cells instead of just trying to dull the pain. Read more

3. Acne? What acne? We all know how you get acne from clogged pores, but once you get a pimple, no amount of face washing will make it go away. The only way to treat the pimple itself is to attack the bacteria and the proteins responsible for the mess in the first place, and researchers have been able to genetically manipulate radish plants (yes, radish plants) to create just those proteins. By turning the proteins into a nasal spray, our bodies should be able to create anti-acne antibodies, and you’ll never get acne again. This works in mice, and human trials should be coming next. Read more

4. Treatments for genetic diseases Stem cells have lots of promise, but they can’t treat genetic diseases, since any stem cells you get from a patient with such a disease will contain the same genetic mutation in their DNA. However, it now appears that it’s possible to go in and repair those mutations directly, using engineered enzymes to snip out the mutations and replace them with normal DNA. Researchers were able to use this technique to cure a genetic liver disease that would ordinarily require a transplant, and while it’s going to take some work to make sure that it’s safe (and affordable), this has the potential to cure almost anything. Read more

5. Curing diabetes with brain cells Did we mention how amazing stem cells are? Neural stem cells (the kind that live in your brain) have been tweaked to turn them into cells that produce insulin. These cells were then stuffed into the pancreas of a diabetic rat, where they got to work regulating blood glucose, effectively curing the rat of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. When the modified cells were removed, the rats went back to normal (i.e. diabetics), but otherwise were totally fine. Trying the same trick on humans is up next. Read more

6. Overweight? Getting old? We’ve got drugs for that Drugs that keep you young and trim might soon start to be a normal part of how we live our lives. Researchers have developed a weight-loss drug called adipotide that, instead of trying to keep us from absorbing fat, actually goes in and safely gets rid of the fat cells that we already have. Another drug called rapamycin can extend the lifespan of mice by over to 10 percent in trials. And if you’re old and overweight, well, there’s a drug for that too: resveratrol has been shown in lab tests to prolong the life of obese mice by 44%. If you’re young and fit? There’s a chance that all of these drugs will work even better.

7. Organs to order Yeah, we’re definitely not done talking about stem cells yet. It’s one thing to use stem cells to repair other cells, but it’s another thing to use them to create entire organs from scratch. This is kinda the ultimate fantasy of stem cells: have a heart problem? Grow a new heart. Have a brain problem? Grow a new brain. Researchers in Japan were able to take stem cells from mice and instruct them to grow into brand new, fully functional pituitary glands. These organs were then implanted into live mice, and worked flawlessly. We should be able to grow anything this way, and this particular experiment will be duplicated with human cells within a few years. Read more

8. Birth control for dudes Us guys generally leave birth control up to the ladies, not because we’re jerks (usually), but because we haven’t had a safe and reliable way to stop all those stupid little sperm from doing their thing. A charged polymer injection called RISUIG is currently undergoing Phase III medical trials in India, and it sounds too good to be true: a 15 minute procedure that costs like ten bucks offers completely safe and reversible birth control that lasts ten years and is 100% effective with no side effects at all. Yeah, uh, where do I sign up? Besides India, I mean. Read more

9. HIV: your days are numbered We’ve been trying for three decades now to develop a vaccine for HIV, and we’re finally getting close. Very close. One technique described this year disrupts HIV before it can compromise the immune system, while another uses gene therapy
to teach cells how to manufacture massive amounts of HIV antibodies, enough to completely protect mice from super concentrated doses of the virus in lab tests. We’re a year or two away from human trials, but the end of this virus could be in sight.

10. Genetic computers that kill cancer The way that cancer has been treated in the past is to just get rid of as much healthy tissue as is necessary to be pretty sure that all the cancerous stuff is gone, and that’s not usually good for the patient. Ideally, you’d want to figure out exactly what’s cancerous and what’s not, and researchers have been able to program a sort of genetic logic circuit that’s able to make the distinction. Furthermore, when it does, the synthetic gene produces a protein that kills the cell. So the idea is that you infect cells with this gene, the gene itself will detect whether there’s cancer or not, and then it’ll kill all the cells with cancer and only those cells. Brilliant. Read more

11. Bacteria-shredding nanoparticles If you want to see evolution in action, just get to know bacteria. We’ve been killing almost all of them with drugs for so long that the few that we didn’t kill have grown into a drug-resistant strain called MRSA that kills tens of thousands of people in hospitals ever year. Instead of more drugs, injectable plastic nanoparticles are able to target the bacteria in our bodies and rip them to shreds, drug resistance or no drug resistance. After a few days, the nanoparticles break down harmlessly and your body gets rid of them, and testing for human-safeness comes next. Read more

12. A virus that boosts your memory Everything we’ve got going on in our bodies is controlled, to some extent, by chemicals. This even extends to memories: when we remember something, there’s one specific enzyme that’s related to how well we remember stuff. Researchers have shown that rats that have been injected with more of this enzyme remembered things for significantly longer than normal, and it worked even after the memories had already been formed. To get this enzyme into our brains involves a genetically engineered virus, and it’s not quite ready for humans yet, but when it is, it might mean eidetic memories for everyone. Read more

13. Feeling like crap: there’s a cure for that That crappy feeling you get when you’re sick (all tired and grumpy and icky and junk) comes from your brain not producing a happy little chemical called orexin. Orexin controls wakefulness, appetite, desire for physical activity, arousal, and just overall interest in everything. When you’re sick, your brain puts orexin on hold to encourage you to do nothing but get better (and be miserable), but the good news is that we’ve got drugs that can mimic orexin, and taking them totally makes rats feel better, and it should work the same way in humans, too. Read more