This Perspective discusses the need for standards that allow for comparisons of quantitative physiological features in microphysiological systems and humans.

This Review discusses strategies for the design of cell–drug conjugates, the techniques for their preparation, and their translational applications, particularly for the treatment of cancers and autoimmune diseases.

This Perspective examines how metal ions modulate the immune system and host–microbiota interactions, and proposes strategies for the development of metal-ion-based immunotherapies.

A patient-centred system that leverages the analysis of sweat via wearable sensors may better support the management of patients with substance-use disorders.

The controlled in situ formation of biomolecular condensates as intracellular reservoirs for the enrichment and retention of a chemotherapeutic in cancer cells enhanced antitumour activities in mice with drug-resistant tumours.

A commercial near-infrared dye that is sensitive to apoptosis and that provides high tumour-to-muscle and tumour-to-liver contrast ratios facilitates fluorescence-guided tumour screening, tumour resection and the assessment of wound healing.

The viral delivery of a miniaturized form of a master protein that establishes dyads (nanostructures involved in excitation–contraction coupling in cardiomyocytes) improved dyad architecture and normalized cardiac function under pressure overload.

A light-sheet fluorescence microscope leveraging consumer-grade components as well as optimized optics and software facilitates the high-resolution imaging of cleared and living samples at scale with lower costs.

A latent diffusion model pre-trained on pairs of natural images and text descriptors can be adapted to generate diverse and visually plausible synthetic chest X-ray images whose appearance can be controlled with free-form medical text prompts.

Two simple and efficient methods for RNA circularization and a complementary Cas9 deimmunization method enhance a broad range of applications in genome and cell engineering.

The Internet didn’t disrupt academic publishing. Audiovisual generative AI might do.

The widening range of strategies to alter the phenotypes and functions of mammalian cells is a boon for their biomedical applications.

Applied biomedical research needs more of them to be more broadly useful, reproducible and robust.

A patient-centred system that leverages the analysis of sweat via wearable sensors may better support the management of patients with substance-use disorders.

Generalist large language models can elevate the quality and efficiency of academic writing.

Appealing against an editor’s negative decision is likely to be more fruitful when considering the basis of the editorial assessment and offering ways forward.