Modern medicine has brought huge health benefits. Now researchers want to go further.

Web searches, medical records and networks of local volunteers are enabling faster control of disease outbreaks.

Old drugs and new tricks keep researchers one step ahead of antibiotic resistance.

Gene editing is quietly revolutionizing the search for new drugs.

Technologies that restore movement and the sense of touch are helping people to overcome the physical effects of stroke and spinal-cord injury.

Innovative drugs have the potential to save lives worldwide — if they are affordable.

Anthony Letai proposes wider adoption of functional assays in efforts to match the right drug to the right patient and discusses why these assays might be complementary to existing genomics-based approaches.

In this Review, Cathomen and colleagues present the latest advances, including improvements in nuclease specificity and delivery, that will expedite the clinical translation of genome editing.

Emerging viral diseases present a huge and increasingly important global threat to public health systems. Graham and Sullivan discuss the challenges presented by emerging viral diseases and discuss how innovations in technology and policy can address this threat.

One strategy to counter the rise of antimicrobial resistance is the development of vaccines against resistant pathogens, preventing further infection and spread of antimicrobial resistance.