Outlook in 2018

Each person’s skin carries a unique population of microbes that might help to protect skin from infection, or increase its vulnerability.

Skin regeneration is impeded by a host of factors. Working out the part played by each could lead to fresh approaches to treating burns and scars.

Clinicians and researchers must learn to talk about and treat the skin condition without alienating a growing chorus of advocates, says John Harris.

Eating well could be better for skin health than applying lotions and potions. But which vitamins and nutrients will yield the healthiest glow?

The skin is the body’s largest organ and has several, diverse functions. As well as being a physical barrier, it has immune and sensory properties.

New treatments are taking aim at blood cancers that exploit the immune system.

Researchers are closing in on vaccines to prevent or treat lymphomas and other cancers triggered by the Epstein–Barr virus.

A therapeutic approach in which a person’s immune cells are genetically recoded to enable them to target their cancerous cousins is helping people whose disease is beyond the reach of existing treatments.

The last resort for many people with lymphoma is to have a stem-cell transplant — a procedure that often leads to the body rejecting the therapy.

Numerous treatment options have emerged for lymphomas, but there are still considerable challenges to be tackled to increase the chances of long-term survival.

Treatments for Hodgkin’s lymphoma can inflict a toll on the body that is felt for decades to come.

Studying lymphoma in canines yields insight into therapies for people — with a bonus of helping the animals.

Liquid biopsies, based on detecting DNA from tumour cells circulating in the blood, can guide clinicians to the most effective treatments.

The dramatic success of ibrutinib has created a more hopeful reality for people with lymphoma, as targeted therapies fill the pipeline.

Working as a scientist in low- and middle-income countries can be challenging, but it also provides the opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives.

The full scientific potential of emerging economies has yet to be realized.

Health-care providers in low- and middle-income countries are shifting their focus away from infections, and towards the bigger problems of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Efforts to improve the health of a community will not succeed if the community does not want them to.

Just like climate change, basic science needs transnational support, says Nobel laureate and biologist Elizabeth Blackburn.

Pursuing a career in science in Africa involves challenges not faced by researchers who remain in the high-income countries in which they studied.