'Can a twice-a-year shot help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic' — Science Magazine's 2024 Breakthrough of the year

I closed yesterday's entry with a program note and a rhetorical question: "Stay tuned for year-end retrospectives. What did you think were the best and worst of 2024?" I didn't get an answer from my readers, so I turn to Science Magazine as it asks Can a twice-a-year shot help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 2024's Breakthrough of the Year.

HIV infects more than a million people every year worldwide. While decades of research have led to effective treatments and pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP) drugs that have dramatically reduced the impact of HIV/AIDS epidemic, completely wiping the virus out has remained out of reach. Lenacapavir, a new twice-yearly PrEP injection, may be the solution. Two clinical trials this year showed the drug can offer near complete protection from HIV infection, and the long-lasting effects mean daily pills could be a thing of the past, as long as it is accessible to populations who need it most. Science journalist Jon Cohen, physician-scientist Linda-Gail Bekker, and biochemist Wesley Sundquist describe the history of HIV/AIDS prevention and the unique mechanism that led lenacapavir to be named the 2024 Breakthrough of the Year.

I began the month writing about Freddie Mercury for World AIDS Day, who exemplified the human cost of the disease, so it's only fitting that I begin wrapping up the month and year by examining the science to combat it. I already show a SciShow video to my students about HIV/AIDS treatments, but I might add this to the mix.* I learned something new from it, and it's always a good day when I learn something new. I hope my students will agree.

Unlike last year, my reaction is not being "slightly disappointed" and asking "Wasn't there something more impressive among the runners-up?" I think this is worthy of being Breakthrough of the Year. Just the same, I'm examining the nine runners-up for Breakthrough of the Year along with four breakdowns. Follow over the jump.

2. Unleashing immune cells on autoimmune disease: This is good news for me on top of a vaccine that could prevent Type 1 Diabetes because that condition, along with Grave's disease, which I also suffer from, are both autoimmune diseases. There is hope!

3. JWST probes the cosmic dawn: The James Webb Space Telescope was the top science story of 2022 and it keeps making news. Keep up the good work!

4. RNA-based pesticides enter the field: I describe "the perfect pesticide" when I lecture about the food system and then point out how this is impossible for toxic chemicals; those result in resistance. Science Magazine notes this is possible with RNA-based pesticides, but this comes as close to "the perfect pesticide" as I've seen so far. Science even asks The perfect pesticide? One can hope.

5. Organelle discovery adds an evolutionary twist: I also lecture about endosymbiotic theory for the origins of mitochondria and chloroplasts. Looks like I'll have to add nitroplasts to that story.

6. A new type of magnetism emerges: That's cool, and I'm sure the physicists and metallurgists love it and electrical engineers will figure out a way to use it, but I don't know if I'll ever lecture about it.

7. Multicellularity came early for ancient eukaryotes: On the other hand, I will be using this in my biology lectures. PBS Eons has already made a video that mentions this discovery, which makes it easy to incorporate.

8. Mantle waves sculpt the continents: This is also something I can incorporate into my geology lectures as soon as I find the right video. Here's to SciShow or PBS Eons picking it up.

9. Starship sticks the landing: I expect to cover this tomorrow in 2024 in space.

10. Ancient DNA reveals family ties: This is also cool, but might be too granular for me to include in my human evolution lectures. Darn.

Now for the breakdowns, which are generally the result of government and society, not the science itself failing.

1. Lessons not learned from COVID-19: Worse than not learning the right lessons from the pandemic are learning the wrong lessons, and I think the responses to avian flu and mpox are among them. The re-election of convicted criminal Donald Trump and his nomination of RFK Jr. just make the possibilities even worse.

2. Science as collateral damage: The U.S. may suffer from this next year, but this year's dishonorees are Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Argentina. May we learn from their bad examples!

3. Psychedelic therapy hits a snag: This is a rare case where the science appears to be the problem; it just didn't support approval of MDMA as a theraputic drug this year. All is not lost. A better-conducted study could result in approval.

4. Environmental negotiations flounder: Climate change, biodiversity, and plastic pollution are three topics I care about, so I find these failures disappointing. Trump's fossil foolishness makes me pessimistic about progress on treaties during the next four years.

Stay tuned for this year's edition of 2023 in space from NASA, ESA, Reuters, and PBS NewsHour tomorrow. Here's to 2024 being another exciting year in space!

*I haven't embedded that SciShow video or its prequel here, both of which the channel produced for World AIDS Day 2017. It might be getting too late for them. That written, SciShow uploaded two videos late this year that I might embed instead.