Every day, the world's scientists and researchers are working to improve human health, develop medical knowledge, and find cures and treatments to improve outcomes for patients. Here are three key medical breakthroughs from this year.

Bespoke drugs for Alzheimer's patients
A Dutch study raised hopes that Alzheimer's treatment could become much more personalised. The researchers identified five "molecular subtypes" of the disease that each have "clear differences" in their genetics and in "the clinical characteristics" that patients display, said Live Science. The team were able to sort more than 400 Alzheimer's patients into these five subtypes, according to the different "levels of specific proteins in their cerebrospinal fluid", a clear liquid that flows around the brain and spinal cord. It is these proteins that are associated with the biological processes that "get derailed in Alzheimer's". The study findings are an "important step" towards being able to give each Alzheimer's patient "the best drug for them at the right stage of their disease".

'Gamechanger' for asthma and lung disease
Doctors are hailing a new treatment for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) attacks as "the first breakthrough for 50 years". It could be a "gamechanger", said The Guardian. In a trial outlined in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, respiratory medicine specialists found that a single, high-dose injection of benralizumab was more effective than the current steroid-tablets treatment at managing the type of flare-up behind 50% of asthma attacks and 30% of COPD attacks. The injection also cut "the need for further treatment by 30%". Benralizumab is already used, at a low dose, as a repeat treatment for severe asthma, but the trial results could be "transformative for millions of people with asthma and COPD around the world".

Personalised cancer vaccines
Patients in England being treated for cancer are taking part in NHS trials of a "world-first" personalised cancer vaccine. The mRNA vaccine is "custom-built" for each eligible patient and works "by training the immune system to recognise, destroy and prevent the spread of cancer cells", said NHS England. The trials are running at 30 sites across England in partnership with research company BioNTech, and are initially focusing on patients with colorectal, skin, lung, bladder, pancreatic and kidney cancer.

Wham! have made music history by clinching the UK's Christmas No.1 for a second year running. "Last Christmas" was originally held off the top spot by Band Aid's "Do They Know It’s Christmas?" after being released in 1984. But four decades on, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley's festive tune is once again leading the Official Charts.  

'Gold standard'
Although Band Aid's 40th anniversary version of the fundraising single missed out on this year's No.1, it is a clear winner in terms of measures including streams, downloads and physical sales. The original was the UK's best-selling official Christmas No.1 single of all time, and topped the charts in 14 countries. 

Ranking the best Christmas tunes is a subjective task, however, with tastes evolving considerably since the first festive chart-topper (Al Martino's "Here In My Heart") in 1952.

Each Christmas No.1 tells us "about the mood of the nation", said Sky News. LadBaby had five consecutive hits from 2018 to 2022 with his "energetic, danceable, and novelty tunes designed for virality", whereas the "2000s and 2010s leaned heavily on emotional ballads, thanks in part to a string of 'The X Factor' winners".

For many, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" is the "gold standard" of festive songs, said Cosmopolitan, "capable of putting you in the holiday mood within the first five seconds of listening".

'True Christmas colossus'
Some of the UK's best-loved festive tunes haven't ever made the top of the charts. "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues, featuring Kirsty MacColl, is "one of the most popular and enduring Christmas songs", said GQ. But it was kept off the No.1 spot on its release in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on my Mind". 

Wham!'s "Last Christmas" is also clearly a "true Christmas colossus". Yet despite being a "staple of nearly every respectable Christmas playlist" for decades, said London's The Standard, until last year it held the record as the highest-selling single never to top the charts.

The coming year will bring a bumper crop of films ranging from eagerly awaited sequels and retakes of old classics to all-new releases.

Nosferatu
Restoring "mystery and magic to the concept of an undead bloodsucker", this vampire movie is a remake of F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", said BBC Culture. Written and directed by Robert Eggers, and starring Lily-Rose Depp (pictured above) and Nicholas Hoult, the new film is stripped of "vampire clichés" and shot like an "arthouse period drama".

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Renée Zellweger returns for the fourth series about the "loveable everywoman", said Tatler. In line with the book of the same name, Bridget is "alone again" following – spoiler alert – the death of her husband, Mark Darcy. Balancing her career with raising two children, the "only area she's neglecting" is her love life.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
The title suggests this "might be Tom Cruise's final mission", said The Guardian. With a budget of $400 million (£320 million) – making it the fourth most expensive film ever – "The Final Reckoning" follows Ethan Hunt as he takes on a dangerous AI program called The Entity.

Elio
"Legendary" animation studio Pixar has aimed high with the narrative of "Elio", said Empire. The title character is a "self-confessed wannabe alien abductee" who is "swept off to an interplanetary organisation's HQ" to discover how he fits into the universe.

28 Years Later
Cillian Murphy reprises his lead role in 2002 hit "28 Days Later" in this third film in the post-apocalyptic horror series. Danny Boyle directs a cast packed with "some of Hollywood's biggest names" including Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

The reshaping of the Middle East
The Financial Times editorial board
The balance of power in the Middle East has "unquestionably shifted in Israel's favour", says the FT's editorial board. Iran "appears at its most vulnerable in years", with its "axis of resistance", including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, looking "ever more like a paper tiger". Israel's "military supremacy over its foes has become starkly clear" and Benjamin Netanyahu now has "no justification" not to end the Gaza war. 

Britain's integration miracle is a beacon of hope amid instability
Fraser Nelson in The Telegraph
As PM, Keir Starmer has "demonstrated the power of pessimism", writes Fraser Nelson. But "longer-term trends" show Britain is "a better place to live – or invest in – than anywhere else in Europe". Over the past 15 years, "our violent crime rate has halved to an all-time low", and while immigration has reached "unprecedented levels", newcomers generally seem "prone to integrate". This is an "amazing country" and we have "more reasons than ever to wish each other a Happy New Year".

My family call it Old Lady Clubbing, but my giddy 'nights out' have lit up a dismal 2024
Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian
The "cheeriest thing" about the past year has been the rise of "Old Lady Clubbing", writes Gaby Hinsliff. Gen X has "gone wild for Abba Voyage" and "refused to give up on Glastonbury", and we're hitting club nights for the over-30s that start and end "blissfully" early. Gen Z "don't party like their parents did", but the middle-aged are "riding to the rescue" of the ailing nightlife industry like "some kind of mad sequin-clad Dunkirk".