Find out about the increasingly vital role of mass spectrometry in medical research in our cover feature – where Livia Eberlin, Eva Cuypers, and Michal Holčapek explain how high-quality analytical tools are enabling their groundbreaking translational research and predict what lies ahead. In our In My View section, our contributors discuss analytical science and the circular economy, the importance of simulators as vital learning tools and how we must employ a church and state approach when it comes to organizing scientific committees, evaluators, and awardees. Elsewhere, our Core Topic sections focus on the emergence of rival technologies in the mass spec world with Alexander Makarov, the importance of the van Deemter equation according to Deirdre Cabooter and Gert Desmet, and all things laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with Rick Russo. Finally, we sit down with Jenny Brodbelt, to discuss her career in the biological applications of mass spec, her development of ultraviolet photodissociation, and why she chose to pursue analytical science.