Nature - The brain and vagus nerve play a key role in exacerbating tissue damage after a heart attack, but there are ways to block it.

Engineered bacteria sense gut bleeding and secrete repair materials.

Analysis indicates that the light from ‘little red dots’ is generated by young supermassive black holes obscured by dense clouds of gas.

Drugs that limit the activity of cells called neutrophils could make heart attacks less severe without compromising the immune system.

A soft, biodegradable, wireless sensing device can monitor pressure, temperature and strain over long distances (up to 16 cm), maintaining accuracy across varying positions and angles.

Reciprocal signaling between intracellular lysosomes and the extracellular matrix supports brain health.

Nature Reviews Bioengineering, Published online: 02 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s44222-025-00389-0Droplet microfluidics enables the precise fabrication of microgels, which are microscale hydrogel particles that serve as modular building blocks for biomaterials. This Review outlines principles of microfluidic microgel production, strategies for tailoring structure and functionality, and applications spanning drug delivery, cell culture and tissue engineering, while highlighting current challenges and future directions.

Partial repair of cardiac right vagus nerve using an implantable conduit after vagal resection limits cardiac tissue damage and dysfunction.

The 4D Nucleome Project demonstrates the use of genomic assays and computational methods to measure genome folding and then predict genomic structure from DNA sequence, facilitating the discovery of potential effects of genetic variants, including variants associated with disease, on genome structure and function.

A protein that cuts double-stranded DNA contributes to chromosome scrambling in human cancer cells

The nuclear pore complex is the gateway to the nucleus of cells. Now an in vivo imaging technique can track the way in which molecules move through this complex.

A 3D in-chip implantation model is developed using a bioengineered human endometrioid and human blastoids or blastocysts and used to identify candidate compounds that can enhance implantation rates in endometrioids derived from patients experiencing recurrent implantation failure.

Recapitulating the self-assembly of kidney progenitors, Huang, Medina, He, Zeng, and colleagues have developed mouse and human kidney progenitor assembloids, exhibiting enhanced cellular complexity, s...

We developed a bioprinting strategy that turns living cells into cell-only bioinks, enabling light-based 3D bioprinting of tissues at native, ultrahigh cell densities (up to ∼109 cells mL−1) to rapidl...

Cells in tissues need to know when to start growing and when to stop growing to quickly heal wounds but prevent tumorous overgrowth. Membrane potential allows cells to sense physical forces, including those from neighboring cells, and thereby regulates growth.

Technical advances allow researchers to trace the genetic changes that occur over time.

Rehabilitation after ischaemic stroke can promote only limited recovery for many patients with stroke. This Review discusses how the distinctly reparative environment of the subacute time window after stroke can inform the design of biology-driven biomaterial-based stroke therapies.

Genes with related functions cluster together, and the AI uses that.

Artificial intelligence is flying high. Nature asked leading innovators what they think will happen next.

Biopharma’s reawakened interest in cardiovascular diseases spans new targets and modalities, with more convenient formulations to boost access and adherence.