Q&As in 2025

Research efforts to develop digital twins in medicine are rapidly increasing, with promising emerging applications in oncology, diabetes management and cardiovascular medicine. While medical digital twins hold great promise for personalized healthcare, their implementation is no easy feat. The field faces diverse challenges including collecting data, choosing computational model designs, ensuring safety and efficacy, and preventing biases. What can be learned from the successes achieved? Which are the most promising upcoming applications? We asked experts in the field for their thoughts.

Despite major advances in bringing cancer cell therapies to the clinic, their widespread accessibility remains a substantial challenge. High manufacturing costs, lack of funding and varying regulatory standards have restricted patient access. As the field advances, researchers, clinicians, regulatory bodies, funding agencies and industry will need to work together to overcome these barriers. A group of experts share their insights into the most pressing challenges and promising strategies to make cell therapies more broadly accessible.

The development of therapeutic cancer vaccines has long been a promising yet challenging field of research. While early efforts were impeded by limited efficacy and immune escape, recent advances in immunotherapy, mRNA technology and tumor antigen discovery have sparked renewed interest in cancer vaccine development. What is the current state of the field, and how should we address the remaining challenges to bring therapeutic cancer vaccines to the clinic? Which modalities hold potential, and what might the future of therapeutic cancer vaccines look like?