We ask the experts, Guadalupe Sabio and Beatriz Cicuéndez: How can we approach weight from a scientific view?

A new year has begun and, with it, new (or renewed) resolutions. Perhaps to take up a new hobby? Join a gym? Go on a diet to lose a few kilos? In any case, it’s common for our weight to figure prominently in a lot of these proposals, as indeed it has in many headlines recently.

Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy… The emergence of new drugs that promise rapid, almost miraculous weight loss has once again placed weight at the centre of social debate, from the press to social media and everyday conversations. But what if we look beyond the number shown by the scales and take this issue to the lab?

Over the past year, advances in medicine and health have filled the headlines on social media, in blogs and newspapers, reminding us that research never stops.

Each new discovery brings us a little closer to the headline we long to see, a utopia which may be different for each of us – “Causes of Alzheimer’s revealed”; “Cure for cancer discovered”… – and which researchers are seeking to bring about through one key factor: innovation. With this combination of creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship, they’re working to transform their findings into solutions that reach society, making possible what once seemed impossible.

That’s why we asked the researchers from our network what their dream headline for 2026 is and how they’re innovating to turn their utopia into a reality.

“They’ve described how the immune system regulates the skin’s resilience”, “They’ve revealed the role played by a group of cells in the aggressiveness of tumours”, “They’ve developed a new vaccine that trains the immune system to attack cancer”…

Behind every headline on social media and in the science and health sections of blogs and newspapers there’s much more than a discovery: there’s dedication, hard work and collaboration.

Every day, researchers and multidisciplinary teams in laboratories, hospitals and universities are working to design new therapeutic strategies and to decipher the mechanisms that give rise to diseases.

And who better than those people themselves to tell us,

Health research and innovation are constantly evolving. Year after year, scientists around the world refine their strategies and laboratory techniques to tackle the greatest challenges of the moment.

And as science advances, our society, our way of life and our environment also change, resulting in new challenges and, with them, new research.

The researchers in our network are an example of how science continues to innovate in the face of the most substantial problems of our time, and the aim of this blog is to highlight their advances and knowledge in the different areas of health. Today we share with you the 12 most noteworthy articles of 2025.

1.

Every five minutes, someone in the world is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). This disease affects more than 2.8 million people worldwide, including 55,000 in Spain. It usually appears between the ages of 20 and 40 (being the second leading cause of disability among young people) and three out of every four sufferers are women.

MS is an neurodegenerative disease of autoimmune origin that affects the brain and spinal cord. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the protective layer of neurons (called the myelin) and their axons (the part that connects them to other nerve cells). When this insulating layer and part of the neurons are damaged, communication between the brain and the rest of the body is interrupted,