Five Science Trends to Watch in 2024

We were wowed by the incredible progress made by our customers and the scientific community at large in 2023—from delivering treatments for hard-to-treat conditions, to helping create a greener world with novel products, to adopting the data infrastructure needed to push the boundaries of innovation with multimodal R&D and advanced technologies like AI. We cannot wait to see what’s in store for 2024. Here are five key trends we’re excited to see unfold.

1. AI and ML - Increasing Impact and Presenting New Challenges

AI will remain at center stage in 2024. In healthcare, we could start to see how the first AI-based drugs fare in clinical trials, and AI-powered tools can help improve patient profiling and diagnostics. Companies will start to see how their data-management efforts have positioned them to reap the benefits of AI, such as increased use of drug repurposing and unlocking the potential of drugs that have been shown to be safe but missed initial clinical endpoints.

In the chemicals and materials industry, AI could accelerate R&D processes, optimize materials performance, improve ROI, speed up the development of green and sustainable materials, and support ecologically-sound practices like cutting emissions in carbon-heavy sectors.

AI will likely take on a growing role in scientific R&D as LLMs and generative AI models become more refined and innovators develop specialized models that leverage scientific laws, empirical evidence, and curated data. Its utility will expand across various facets of R&D, helping to reduce costs, shorten timelines, and supercharge innovation. Applications will grow in early product design and testing, development and manufacturing, and post-marketing assessment and optimization. Global spending on AI is projected to continue growing, potentially exceeding $500 billion by 2027.

A crucial underpinning to making AI investments pay off is data. For scientific R&D companies, the most valuable data is proprietary. However, capturing and managing scientific R&D data is uniquely challenging due to the complexity of data types and innovation cycles. Solutions like Dotmatics Luma aim to address these challenges by flexibly and securely aggregating all relevant R&D data into correlated data structures, enabling reliable data analysis and paving the way for meta-analysis and AI/ML-based algorithms.

AI progress in 2024 may also bring new obstacles, such as GPU shortages, a shifting AI-provider landscape, evolving technology requirements and skill demands, changing policy and regulation, and concerns over protecting IP in the age of data-driven AI.

2. Biotechnology and Genetic Research - Expanding Biologics Treatment Areas and Modalities

The biologics market continues to expand into new treatment areas and modalities. In the United States, 2023 biologics approvals outpaced those in 2022 for both the FDA and the Center for Biologic Evaluation and Research (CBER). Approvals moved beyond cancer into treatments for various genetic, respiratory, immune, musculoskeletal, skin, gastrointestinal, hematologic, lysosomal, and neurological diseases.

There was growing diversification in modalities, with approvals for various protein therapies, oligonucleotides, and conjugates. Notable were the first-ever approved CRISPR-Cas-9 gene editing product and the first-ever-approved redosable gene therapy. Companies looking to optimize biologics R&D in 2024 can turn to solutions that support diversification, structural and process complexity, and workflow intricacy, supporting R&D on a range of modalities such as CAR-T, CRISPR, multiformat antibodies, RNA therapeutics, and chemically-modified biologics.

3. Personalized Medicine - Shifting Paradigms by Leveraging Data

Data is helping deliver a paradigm shift in medicine and healthcare. The personalized medicine market is expected to reach around $500 billion by 2027, with expansion beyond cancer into other treatment areas such as CNS, infectious, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases.

The data guiding personalized medicine’s advancement is rapidly expanding beyond genomics into integrated multi-omic data. The success of personalized medicine will hinge on how well companies can apply data-management and AI technology to profile patients, develop targeted therapeutics, and inform personalized treatment plans. Investing in infrastructure to handle diverse data types, establishing processes to collect and harmonize data, and supporting data sharing across industry and academia while protecting IP will be key challenges.

4. Climate Science, Green Chemistry, and Sustainable Materials Design - Spurring Change with Data-Driven R&D

Climate records were shattered in 2023, with record-high greenhouse gas, increased extreme weather, and rising sea levels and surface temperatures. The impact includes wildfires, flooding, habitat destruction, food insecurity, population displacement, and human-health risks. There is a strong consensus that climate change is driven by humans, primarily via fossil fuel usage.

In 2024, efforts in green and sustainable material design are expected to grow. Companies are making progress in creating sustainable, algae-based alternatives to petroleum-based materials and shifting toward sustainability in product manufacturing. Clean and renewable energy research will also see growing efforts, with AI being used to accelerate the development of clean-energy solutions such as carbon-emission-capture technology, fuel alternatives, and improved battery technology.

Successful climate-conscious innovation will require companies to efficiently capture, leverage, and build off their R&D data. Finding informatics systems to support novel R&D has been challenging due to the complexity and variability of research workflows and data types, and an increased focus on sustainability further complicates factors such as ingredient selection, tracking, and product testing.

5. Nanotechnology - Driving Innovation Across Diverse Industries

Nanotechnology, the study and engineering of matter between 1 and 100 nanometers, has become an essential innovation tool for industries from materials science to medicine. It allows for more precise control over physical, chemical, and biological properties, delivering new and improved products such as better batteries, coatings, composites, imaging technology, biosensors, and targeted drug-delivery systems.

Nanotechnology’s impact will continue to be far-reaching in 2024, with a promising role in progressing sustainable materials R&D. Nanotechnology could help create greener materials with reduced carbon footprints, solvent alternatives, non-toxic components, lower volatility, and eco-friendly manufacturing practices. In sustainability development, nanomaterials are emerging as indispensable components in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen technology, and electrochemical energy storage.

Nanotechnology is also spurring change in medicine, playing an essential role in progressing diagnostics, imaging, and drug delivery. The nanomedicine market is predicted to see exponential growth, driven by increased funding, government support, and demand for novel treatments to chronic diseases. The role of nanoparticle delivery systems in bringing mRNA vaccines to fruition is significant, and creating drug-delivery systems for products like modified RNA demands collaboration among R&D teams across biology, chemistry, and materials science.

What’s in Store in 2024?

While exciting things are on the horizon, progress does not often come without pain. Dotmatics is interested in discussing what R&D teams are working on in 2024 and exploring how their solutions can help overcome obstacles.