Medical physics and biotechnology: highlights of 2025

27 Dec 2025 Tami Freeman

(Courtesy: Shutterstock/Anton Khrupin Art; iStock/berya113)

This year saw Physics World report on a raft of innovative and exciting developments in medical physics and biotech. These included novel cancer therapies using low-temperature plasma or laser ablation, intriguing new devices such as biodegradable bone screws and a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice, and neural engineering breakthroughs, including an ultrathin bioelectric implant that improves movement in rats with spinal cord injuries and a tiny brain sensor that enables thought control of external devices. Here are a few more research highlights that caught my eye.

Vision transformed

One remarkable device introduced in 2025 was an eye implant that restored vision to patients with incurable sight loss. In a clinical study led by the University of Bonn, participants with age-related macular degeneration had a tiny wireless implant inserted under their retina. Used in combination with specialized glasses, the system restored the ability to read in 27 of 32 participants, followed up a year later. Learning to read again Study participant Sheila Irvine, a patient at Moorfields Eye Hospital, training with the PRIMA device. (Courtesy: Moorfields Eye Hospital)

We also described a contact lens that enables wearers to see near-infrared light without night vision goggles, reported on a fascinating retinal stimulation technique that enabled volunteers to see colours never before seen by the human eye, and chatted with researchers in Hungary about how a tiny dissolvable eye insert they are developing could help astronauts suffering from eye conditions.

Radiation therapy advances

2025 saw several firsts in radiation therapy. Researchers in Germany performed the first cancer treatment using a radioactive carbon ion beam on a mouse with a bone tumour close to the spine. And a team at the Trento Proton Therapy Centre in Italy delivered the first clinical treatments using proton arc therapy – a development that made it onto our top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year.

Meanwhile, the ASTRO meeting saw Leo Cancer Care introduce its first upright photon therapy system, called Grace, which will deliver X-ray radiation to patients in an upright position. This new approach to radiation delivery is also under investigation by a team at RaySearch Laboratories, which showed that combining static arcs and shoot-through beams can improve plan quality and reduce delivery time in upright proton therapy.

Among other new developments, there’s a low-cost, dual-robot radiotherapy system built by a team in Canada and targeted for use in low-resource settings, a study from Australia showing that combining microbeam radiation therapy with targeted radiosensitizers can optimize brain cancer treatment, and an investigation at Moffitt Cancer Center examining how skin luminance imaging improves Cherenkov-based radiotherapy dosimetry.

The impact of AI

It’s particularly interesting to examine how the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting healthcare, especially given its potential for data-intensive tasks. Earlier this year, a team at Northwestern Medicine integrated a generative AI tool into a live clinical workflow for the first time, using it to draft radiology reports on X-ray images. In routine use, the AI model increased documentation efficiency by an average of 15.5%, while maintaining diagnostic accuracy. Samir Abboud: “For my colleagues, it’s not an exaggeration to say that [the AI tool] doubled our efficiency.” (Courtesy: José M Osorio/Northwestern Medicine)

Other promising applications include identifying hidden heart disease from electrocardiogram traces, contouring targets for brachytherapy treatment planning, and detecting abnormalities in blood smear samples.

When introducing AI into the clinic, however, it’s essential that any AI-driven software is accurate, safe, and trustworthy. To help assess these factors, a multinational research team identified potential pitfalls in evaluating algorithmic bias in AI radiology models and proposed best practices to mitigate it.

A quantum focus

Finally, with 2025 being the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, Physics World examined how quantum physics looks set to play a key role in medicine and healthcare. Many quantum-based companies and institutions are already working in the healthcare sector, with quantum sensors, in particular, close to being commercialized. As detailed in this feature on quantum sensing, such technologies are being applied across a range of applications, from lab and point-of-care diagnostics to consumer wearables for medical monitoring, body scanning, and microscopy.

Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year in physics for 2025 revealed

Alongside, scientists at Jagiellonian University are applying quantum entanglement to cancer diagnostics and developing the world’s first whole-body quantum PET scanner, while researchers at the University of Warwick have created an ultrasensitive magnetometer based on nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond that could detect small cancer metastases via keyhole surgery. There’s even a team designing a protein qubit that can be produced directly inside living cells and used as a magnetic field sensor (which also featured in this year’s top 10 breakthroughs).

And in September, we ran a Physics World Live event examining how quantum optics, quantum sensors, and quantum entanglement can enable advanced disease diagnostics and transform medical imaging. The recording is available to watch here.

Tami Freeman is an online editor for Physics World

FROM PHYSICSWORLD.COM    17/1/2026