Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the landscape of how biological data are acquired and analyzed. Almost no corner of biological research has been left untouched.

Foundation models are becoming increasingly popular across various biological domains, yet rigorous methods to comprehensively evaluate their full potential remain underdeveloped. This Perspective discusses current limitations and challenges in benchmarking these models and proposes guidelines for more robust and meaningful evaluation.

Cell biologists have long known that mechanical forces, such as tension and compression, influence tissue differentiation. Now, advanced methods are letting them observe and manipulate these forces in real time, in living systems.

Graphical abstracts are visual summaries that help communicate scientific discoveries.

CFM enables tunable cell confinement for measuring traction forces exerted by single cells and cell aggregates in tissue-mimicking microenvironments.

Rather than relying on pre-specified ancestry labels, which often fail to capture the full genetic heterogeneity of diverse populations, SPLENDID treats ancestry as a continuum and improves polygenic risk score (PRS) prediction for biobank-scale datasets.

A compact protein pair that heterodimerizes upon red light activation, FenixS and Ash1, is developed for optogenetic applications.

WILD is a wireless device that can record neuronal activity, perform optogenetic stimulations, record animal movements, record the environment or eye movements via an integrated camera, analyze the data and trigger optogenetic stimulation. This device facilitates studies of brain activity in freely moving animals such as mice, both in the laboratory and under naturalistic conditions.

MemBrain v2 enables streamlined analysis of membranes in cryo-electron tomography by providing user-friendly tools for membrane segmentation, membrane protein localization and spatial analysis, supporting workflows across diverse datasets.

IRIS learns conserved signaling representations from in vitro perturbation data to reconstruct signaling states and histories across diverse in vivo cellular contexts.

Some visualizations resonate while others are forgotten. Why that is can be understood with the principles of creating ‘proximity’.

Prototypes of specially engineered transmission electron microscopes deliver images with greatly improved contrast to cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) projects.

Many have dreamt of studying and getting their scientific training in the United States. These days, that dream is no easy pursuit.