News & Comment

2014 was another banner year for public companies, building on the strength of 2013 and adding to the unprecedented biotech bull run.

Private biotech never had it so good. Although the number of startups formed did not increase dramatically, the sector grew in size and received much more money than in 2013.

Nature Biotechnology asks selected members of the international community to comment on the ethical issues raised by the prospect of CRISPR-Cas9 engineering of the human germline.

Ventures focusing on drug testing or therapies against rare disease, cancer, gastrointestinal disease, fibrosis and pain are among those selected by the editors in 2014's crop of startups.

A new generation of commercial entities is beginning to explore opportunities for new types of interventions and services in a graying world.