Outlook in 2011

Introducing a human disease into mice is helping researchers explore its nature and find potential therapies.

Multiple myeloma is the ideal disease to study a controversial theory about the biology of cancer — and how to cure it.

Multiple myeloma begins with a benign condition before progression to full-blown cancer, and work is underway to uncover the origins of both.

Researchers are developing new weapons to fight a deadly form of blood cancer.

Finding a treatment for the bone destruction caused by myeloma helped researchers understand the biology of bone.

Stem-cell transplants are an important tool for treating myeloma. But with improved drug alternatives, doctors disagree about the best time to give the treatment.

Some people get horribly sick from the flu, and even die. Others just rest for a few days. What's behind this fateful variation?

Antiviral treatments are a critical component of an effective healthcare response to influenza, but drug resistance to the treatment-of-choice has public health officials searching for other options.

Influenza mutates fast and spreads easily, earning a place among humanity's biggest killers.

Richard Webby studies the ecology of influenza, trying to better understand how certain strains of influenza can leap across the species divide from animals to people. Nature Outlook sat down with him to learn more about his research.

The 2009 pandemic arrived suddenly and lethally, exposing our plans to reality. Are we now better prepared?

A focus on skin barrier disorders has opened up new thinking about how allergies kick in.

They come not single spies, but in battalions. The latest research helps explain why an individual may experience the 'atopic march' from one allergic disorder to another.

Clinical trials are testing how careful exposure could protect people with potentially lethal allergies to everyday fare.

Modern living seems somehow to make our immune systems overly sensitive. Is cleanliness at fault — or something else?

Allergy isn't the whole story on atopic eczema, says Hywel Williams.

Asthma was once thought to be a uniform disease triggered by one type of immune cell. Researchers are now revealing the complexity of the condition and hope to hasten new drugs for forms unresponsive to steroids.

A plethora of therapies can keep the symptoms of allergy under control, but they can't cure. New research aims to prevent allergies from developing in the first place.