●LIGHTing the way for tumor immunity. Houghton, A. N. Nature Immunology February (2004) The stroma of a tumour provides a barrier to cells of the immune system; however, a recent study has indicated that expression of LIGHT by tumour cells induces a strong anti-tumour immune response. As discussed in this News & Views article, it seems that LIGHT might stimulate the stroma to secrete T-cell chemoattractants and then participate in T-cell priming in the tumour.

●Protein surgery. Rammensee, H. -G. Nature 15 January (2004) This News & Views article discusses the recent identification of an MHC class-I-bound peptide derived from non-contiguous portions of a cellular protein, and the enormous immunological implications of this first demonstration of protein splicing in human cells.

●Age-related changes in lymphocyte development and function. Linton, P. J. & Dorshkind, K. Nature Immunology February (2004)

●Cytokine-receptor pairing: accelerating discovery of cytokine function. Foster, D., Parrish-Novak, J., Fox, B. & Xu, W. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery February (2004)

●The STATs of cancer — new molecular targets come of age. Yu, H. & Jove, R. Nature Reviews Cancer February (2004) Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins are crucial transcription factors involved in many processes including cytokine-receptor signalling. This review discusses the evidence that STATs regulate many of the functions of tumour cells — the ability to proliferate uncontrollably, to resist apoptosis and sustain angiogenesis — and their emergence as potential therapeutic targets.

●Cell adhesion and signalling by cadherins and Ig-CAMs in cancer. Cavallaro, U. & Christofori, G. Nature Reviews Cancer February (2004) Cadherins and immunoglobulin-like cell-adhesion molecules (Ig-CAMs) are crucial cellular adhesion molecules that additionally modulate signal transduction. Recent data reviewed here indicate that this interplay between cell adhesion and signal transduction is important during tumour invasion and metastasis.

●Virus entry: molecular mechanisms and biomedical applications. Dimitrov, D. Nature Reviews Microbiology February (2004) Interactions between viral envelope proteins and the host-cell receptor are complex, often resulting in conformational changes that are required for virus entry. Advances in our understanding of these interactions and how such knowledge can be translated to develop new therapeutics and vaccines are reported in this review article.