I am honored to introduce the new journal Cells, which has been created to serve as a hub for disseminating new findings and discoveries in cell biology to researchers worldwide. Cells is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal on cell biology, molecular biology, and biophysics. Much has been accomplished in molecular and cell biology in the past thirty years. We have unraveled the structure of many proteins, nucleic acids and lipids, and learned much about cell structures, including lysosomes, mitochondria, cytoskeletal elements, cell membranes, endoplasmic reticulum, and nuclei. Now, it is time to apply this knowledge to answering the age-old question: "How do cells work?" It appears there is a strong demand for a journal focused on various functional aspects of cell biology, including such fundamental ones as gametogenesis, embryonic development, tissue regeneration, tumorigenesis, and aging. [...].