Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
In medicine and society exist two pandemics. One, COVID-19, has recently emerged and has been widely acknowledged. The other — systemic racism — has been silently deadly for centuries. Now is the time to recognize the impact of this other pandemic and to eradicate it.
MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation is an exciting, minimally invasive technology with the potential to provide targeted ablation of prostate cancer tissue. At 3 years, functional outcomes remain good with 76% remaining free from salvage treatment. Future studies using a focal approach may provide evidence for widespread uptake of this technology.
At Nature Reviews Urology, we have pledged to strive towards improving diversity in our field. As a step towards this goal, this Viewpoint presents the experiences of 10 Black urologists. Their stories illustrate the importance of perseverance and emphasize the essential role of community and mentorship to raise up our peers and colleagues, to support and encourage Black urologists and lead to a more diverse field of urology in the future.
Many aspects of human male reproduction can be modulated by cannabinoids and endocannabinoids (eCBs). Preclinical studies have shown that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is involved in negative modulation of testosterone secretion, but the effect of in vivo exposure to cannabinoids on spermatogenesis remains a matter of debate. An improved understanding of the complex crosstalk between cannabinoids and eCBs might enable targeting of the ECS for modulation of human fertility.
In this Review, van de Merbel et al. provide a comprehensive overview of the current patient-derived tumour models in use for urological cancers and discuss their advantages and limitations, as well as their potential for personalized treatment.
Mammalian sperm must respond to a variety of cues, and dynamic regulation of ion signalling is, therefore, essential for sperm cells to adapt to their environment. In this Review, the authors describe the ion channels and membrane receptors controlling sperm activity, in particular the principal Ca2+-selective plasma membrane ion channel CatSper, and consider how sperm ion channels and membrane receptors are attractive targets for therapeutics and how these signalling processes might have implications for assisted reproductive technologies.
