Biologists love to use the word "novel". It's littered throughout their literature.

As an adjective, it's applied to new approaches, new discoveries, previously uncharacterized behaviors, etc.

eg. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=novel+gene , https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=novel+approach , etc.

When you think about it, publication is itself about presenting novel results. That's the goal, for better or worse.