Biomedical research seems like it should be the ultimate bipartisan issue. But under the Trump administration, unless and until Congress regains its will to make use of its constitutional powers, bipartisan support for research seems to be a thing of the past. On March 3, members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine warned that the second Trump administration has been waging a “wholesale assault” on American research.

The U.K. has released a huge repository of children’s genomic data after sequencing blood samples from three large cohorts recruited at birth and followed across three decades. The power of the data is amplified by the large volume of longitudinal health information, biological samples and responses to surveys and questionnaires that has been provided by participating families. Before this, large-scale publicly available genome sequences were limited to adult cohorts, and the only childhood genome sequence data was from children with rare diseases.

The map of cystic fibrosis (CF) research is being redrawn in the U.K. as improvements in treatment, and in particular the introduction of CF modulator drugs, mean people with the rare inherited disease are living much longer.

The former head of the U.S. NIH has sounded a warning that the uncertainty caused by the Trump Administration’s funding cuts and layoffs is blocking “critical work” and “paralyzing” biomedical research. “Every time we launch a new program, every time we continue to commit resources to ongoing work, those are important decisions that we make every single day, and in times like this, that decision-making is paralyzed,” said Monica Bertagnolli, who stood down as director of the NIH on Jan. 17.

Our immune cells are not just “defenders” against deadly viruses and pathogens but also a great balancer for tissue homeostasis. For neurological disorders, understanding the neuro-immune axis could be key to treating previously untreatable conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, according to Jun R. Huh, professor of immunology at Harvard Medical School.

Endometriosis has been woefully under-recognized in the medical community, and consequently, the delay between onset and diagnosis is often quite long, with some women waiting up to 12 years for a diagnosis. Endometriosis affects about 10% of women, and about 190 million women worldwide live with endometriosis.

As China rises to second place, next only to the U.S., for innovative new drugs, a new report by Clarivate – A Decade of Innovation, A Decade to Come – outlines key policy reforms and regulatory, R&D and investment trends driving past and future growth of Chinese biopharmaceuticals.

While women make up half the world’s population and own two out of every five businesses, there are substantial knowledge gaps about conditions affecting their health – mostly due to decades of research excluding women from clinical trials and investment decisions.

At the BioFuture 2024 conference held in New York in November, Seema Kumar, the CEO of Cure, described women’s health as something that has been directed at the “bikini area.” That “bikini” bias extended to both diseases and their causes – women’s health covered the breasts and reproductive system, and its causes were hormonal. Both concepts are far too narrow.

It’s difficult to fathom that the health of half the world’s population is underserved. But it’s a hard truth. There are many conditions that disproportionately impact women. Other conditions and diseases affect women in different ways than men. Decades of research excluding women from clinical trials and investment decisions in male-dominated board rooms have ignored these facts. Though an increasing number of women are now managing investments and driving the research, it’s all still woefully behind. In BioWorld’s new report, Healing the health divide, we’ve highlighted the disparities.