Porous materials have rapidly evolved from being passive scaffolds to becoming active participants in disease diagnosis, treatment, and management. Their tunable structures, expansive surface areas, and chemical flexibility enable them to connect material science and medicine in ways that few other platforms can achieve. Since the inaugural report on porous materials in 1973, the volume of publications has steadily and significantly increased over recent decades (Figure 1a). A wide array of porous materials is available, encompassing organic polymers, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs), π-frameworks, as well as silicon-based inorganic and hybrid porous materials. The substantial capacity for loading and the types of porous materials available for this purpose expands combinatorially into thousands of documented systems and millions of potential theranostic systems, facilitating applications ranging from drug delivery and therapy to imaging and sensing (Figure 1b). In this special issue, we have curated significant contributions from both established experts and promising newcomers in the field of porous materials, aimed at illustrating the progress made and the promising directions that lie ahead. Collectively, these works highlight the remarkable diversity of porous materials and the expansive range of diseases they are targeted to address.