This issue of the Mycologist contains four contemporary reviews of topical issues in the field of medical mycology – a branch of mycology that has been fuelled by the urgent need to discover new classes of antifungal drugs and which has benefited from the injection of new information from genome sequencing of key pathogens. These four vignettes are not intended to provide a coherent overview of medical mycology, but instead illustrate why that area of mycology is enjoying a period of investment, progress and academic excitement. The reviews are presented by four scientists who are the foremost authorities in their respective fields. They focus on drug discovery and drug resistance, and on recent advances in our understanding of the biology of the two major fungal pathogens of humans – Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus.