●Focus: Bridging innate and adaptive immunity.Nature Immunology October (2004) A collection of three Reviews and one Perspective article that discuss how components of the innate immune system, such as Toll-like receptors, complement and natural killer cells, can regulate adaptive immune responses.

●An unexpected social servant. Le Roy, C. & Wrana, J. L. Nature 9 September (2004) Recent work has uncovered a surprising role for the tumour-suppressor protein cytoplasmic promyelocytic leukaemia protein (cPML) in transducing signals from the TGF-β receptor, as covered in this News and Views article.

●Antimicrobial reactive oxygen and nitrogen species: concepts and controversies. Fang, F. C. Nature Reviews Microbiology October (2004) A review of the mechanisms by which phagocytes kill, inhibit and degrade microorganisms through the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species.

●Autoimmune hypothyroidism: T cells caught in the act. McLachlan, S. M. & Rapoport, B. Nature Medicine September (2004) This News and Views article discusses the finding that thyroid peroxidase-specific T cells, in the absence of antibodies, are sufficient to cause thyroid autoimmunity in a transgenic mouse model.

●Epstein–Barr virus: 40 years on. Young, L. S. & Rickinson, A. B. Nature Reviews Cancer October (2004) Epstein–Barr virus is widespread in all human populations and persists in the vast majority of individuals as a life-long, asymptomatic infection of B cells. This article describes how 'endemic' Burkitt's lymphoma became the first of an unexpectedly wide range of tumours associated with this virus.

●From lethal virus to life-saving vaccine: developing inactivated vaccines for pandemic influenza. Wood, J. M. & Robertson, J. S. Nature Reviews Microbiology October (2004)

●Aid for AID. Ramiro, A. R. & Nussenzweig, M. C. Nature 26 August (2004) Antibody diversification through both somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination is mediated by the enzyme activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). New work now shows that replication protein A (RPA) targets AID to single-stranded DNA and provides a link to DNA-repair proteins.

●Cancer immunotherapy: moving beyond current vaccines. Rosenberg, S. A., Yang, J. C. & Restifo, N. P. Nature Medicine September (2004) This Perspective article discusses the progress in the field of tumour immunology in the past decade. Results from cancer vaccine trials are contrasted with alternative strategies that mediate cancer regression in preclinical and clinical models.

●New drugs for asthma. Barnes, P. J. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery October (2004) This Review article describes the prospects for new oral therapies for this increasing global health problem. These include inhibitors of cytokines and new anti-inflammatory therapies.