Since the launch of Nature Reviews Genetics almost a decade ago, we have used a variety of ways to communicate the most important advances in genetics and genomics. As well as the classic Review format, our Perspective, Analysis and Progress articles have enabled authors to tackle topics in a range of useful and interesting ways. This month's issue sees our first Comment article, a new format that we hope you will find engaging and informative.

As the name suggests, Comment articles allow authors to provide a commentary on issues that are having an impact on how genetic, genomic and related research is carried out and applied. Such issues might range from the ethical to the technical, and will have broad relevance to the journal's readership.

On p310, Sharon Terry uses the Comment format to argue that the traditional way of allocating funding for disease research is stunting the translational impact of genetics and genomics. She sees the earmarking of funds for research on specific diseases as outdated in an era in which genomics approaches are providing unprecedented means to identify connections between diseases.

Terry's Comment calls on striking examples of how Mendelian diseases can inform about diseases with a multifactorial basis, and vice versa. The relationship between Mendelian and complex diseases is also the focus of a Viewpoint article on p380. Here, four leading geneticists give their perspectives on how advances in technology are changing the way that both types of disease are studied.

We hope that these two articles showcase the continued strength of Nature Reviews Genetics in providing our readers with a broad picture of exciting fields in genetics and genomics.