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Amid the crises and chaos of 2016, life, as they say, went on. And so too did the study of life: Biologists had their work cut out for them handling the Zika virus, a quickly-blossoming science and public health concern that turned out to be our biggest biology story of the year.
But the field forged ahead in other areas. Biologists continued to hammer away at old enemies like HIV, cholera, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And their tools keep getting better: Neuroscientists have used slicker cameras and techniques to map out the brain more precisely than ever, and creative researchers are now applying gene editing to tackle everything from HIV to animals on the brink of extinction. Here are some of 2016's biggest moments in biology:
As Zika spread in the US---via travelers and (later) Florida mosquitoes---scientists raced to study the disease in earnest, eventually confirming that Zika causes microcephaly. Meanwhile, public health officials, ob-gyns, and mosquito control experts managed the virus on the ground with Zika kits, counseling for pregnant women, and pesticide spraying. And scientists took to wackier, less-traditional methods as well: hacking disease transmission by modifying the mosquitoes’ genes, or infecting thousands of males with a sterilizing bacteria called Wolbachia. All the while, Congress tussled over whether to put money towards Zika research and prevention, finally approving $1.1 billion towards the fight in September.
Now that scientists have gotten busy applying the much-fêted gene-editing technique Crispr to their work, they’re finally publishing the fruits of their labors. Researchers have edited white blood cells and injected them into patients with lung cancer, edited bone marrow cells to test sickle cell anemia therapies, and edited human embryos (twice!). And forget Jennifer Doudna. Crispr’s real big break came this year: It’s the central plot device for a TV drama, C.R.I.S.P.R, currently being developed by Jennifer Lopez.
As imaging techniques improve, neuroscientists are collecting terabytes of brain data and sifting through it to draw an ever-clearer picture of how it all hangs together. They’ve cut mouse brains into vanishingly thin slices to piece together their neural networks and monitored the brain activity of mice as they watched Touch of Evil or did nothing at all---all to understand human brains better. And to make sure their imaging data was legit, some researchers took a good hard look at the accuracy of techniques like fMRI, which measures blood flow in the brain as a proxy for neural activity.
Scientists have been grappling with creating an HIV vaccine for years. Sure, people with HIV can use antiretroviral drugs like Truvada to keep the virus at bay. But the drugs aren’t perfect, especially if you miss a dose—not to mention that many people with the disease don’t have access to those drugs. But the news is hopeful this year: Researchers around the world have spun up several clinical trials to test possible vaccines and antibodies to fight the virus. And a team reported in Nature that they had successfully created a vaccine to treat the version of HIV in monkeys.
2016 saw outbreaks of diseases that should be over but aren’t. In Angola, a vaccine shortage has allowed new cases of yellow fever to develop. After two years free of polio cases, Nigeria relapsed, possibly because Boko Haram has made it difficult for organizations to gather accurate health data. And cholera in Haiti had been raging even before Hurricane Matthew exacerbated the country’s sanitation problems in October. Even as biologists make progress on new treatments and vaccines, these diseases remind us that in the messy real world, cures only work if you use them right.
As biologists go, taxonomists are the feistiest of the bunch, always squabbling about giraffe speciation or how to properly define taxonomy. And in 2016, those fights spilled over to Twitter. (Amazing! Some people on the internet were getting righteously indignant about something that wasn’t the election!) But biologists are also now applying new research into the genetics of wild animals to help save them—like putting gene drives in invasive Galapagos rats so they die out, or selectively breeding Tasmanian devils with genes resistant to the face cancer that almost wiped them out.
After spending 340 days in space aboard the ISS, astronaut Scott Kelly alighted back on Earth in March. Now, NASA is inspecting his body and comparing it to his earthbound twin brother Mark’s to see how the rigors of long-term space livin’ affects humans. Did the lack of gravity weaken Space Kelly’s bones? How did it affect the fluids in his body? And what about all that radiation? The sooner scientists find out, the closer humanity gets to sweet, habitable Mars condos.
