Editorials in 2024

Biased and unrepresentative scientific data can lead to misleading conclusions and potentially harm patients. Artificial intelligence (AI) might be able to help make data more representative, but only if a standardized approach to assessing the quality of AI-generated data is established.

Review articles are our bread and butter. Here, we would like to offer some insights on how to craft a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of a field.

Women’s health research has long been underfunded, in part owing to stigmas associated with conditions that primarily affect women. Equitable health research funding requires transparency from funding agencies, investment in women-centred innovations, support for women in science and a cultural shift in how health issues are viewed.

Research on human brain organoids is progressing at speed. Therefore, an ethical and legal framework needs to be put in place to ensure their responsible use, while not constraining innovation.

Brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) have the potential to restore functions in people with neurological disorders, but they face challenges in development, ethics and implementation. As the field progresses and approaches clinical translation, addressing issues of hype, patient access, user-centred design and long-term support will be essential to ensure responsible innovation and adoption of BMIs.

Bioengineering breakthroughs often arise from deceptively simple solutions, leveraging scalability, modularity and ease-of-use. However, certain biomedical applications require the integration of custom-engineered, patient-specific complexity. Striking this simplicity–complexity balance will drive affordable, globalized health innovations.

Global health-related research and development continues to uphold colonialist structures, concentrating knowledge generation and innovation to high-income countries, thereby hindering global health equity. Therefore, in addition to engineering new technologies, bioengineers will need to try to engineer equitable relationships.

Prosthetic embodiment, or the incorporation of a prosthesis into one’s sensory and functional body schema, may be achieved by engineering bionic limbs that leverage a closed-loop mechanoneural–machine interface. However, the subjective experience of embodiment remains difficult to define and assess.

Bioplastics have yet to make an impact in addressing plastics pollution. Policy measures, innovation and public discourse are needed to address misconceptions, clarify labelling and ensure their effective end-of-life management.

A long-standing nanoparticle delivery paradigm in cancer, that is, the enhanced permeability and retention effect, has been challenged, shifting the focus to active delivery mechanisms, which may provide a new mechanistic foundation for nanoparticle design.

The struggle of establishing a successful academic career while starting a family drives many researchers, in particular, women, out of academia. Pausing the academic clock and individualizing performance assessment may thus help reduce gender inequalities in academia.

One year in, we take stock of the areas we published, our outreach efforts and our authorship, looking ahead at what comes next in Nature Reviews Bioengineering.