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In less than a decade, the genome-editing technology now recognized by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has impacted the biological and biomedical sciences widely. What’s next for CRISPR in biomedicine?
Two recent high-profile retractions of COVID-19 papers exemplify that trust cannot be taken for granted. To strengthen it, scientific review will have to become more transparent.
Repurposed drugs, inhibitors of inflammatory cytokines, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and sera from convalescent patients will help ease the burden of COVID-19 on healthcare systems.
Further COVID-19 outbreaks are unavoidable. To detect and suppress them, governments ought to implement a range of public health measures aided by technology.
The world needs mass at-home serological testing for antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2, and rapid and frequent point-of-care testing for the presence of the virus’ RNA in selected populations.
Progress in fluorescence-guided systems and contrast agents for real-time intraoperative assistance during tumour-resection operations should benefit patient outcomes.
The integration and miniaturization of components in electronic and photonic devices for interfacing with neural tissue allow for ever more precise neural recording and stimulation.
The discoveries of this year’s Nobel laureates in Physiology and Medicine have improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies relying on oxygen sensing.
Translational cancer nanomedicine needs to increasingly exploit newly discovered tumour-targeting strategies as well as the further optimization of proven means to selectively increase the concentration of cytotoxic drugs in solid tumours.
Soft biomaterials for implantation in the body are increasingly designed to be functional for a finite time and to then disappear via degradation or resorption.
Modelling human tissues in microphysiologically relevant ‘chips’ will increasingly help to unravel mechanistic knowledge underlying disease, and might eventually accelerate the productivity of drug development and predict how individual patients will respond to specific drugs.
The development of imaging technology for the quantification of optical biomarkers of pathological processes should involve the validation of the biomarkers’ biological accuracy.