●A new canon. Pourquié, O. Nature (20 January (2005)). This News and Views article discusses a recent report that describes a link between Wnt proteins and a G-protein signalling cascade. Wnt signals through the G-protein-coupled receptor Frizzled to activate adenylyl cyclase, which results in the activation of protein kinase A and subsequent transcriptional changes.

●The tetraspanin web modulates immune-signalling complexes. Levy, S. & Shoham, T. Nature Reviews Immunology February (2005)

●Lipid regulation of the synaptic vesicle cycle. Rohrbough, J. & Broadie, K. Nature Reviews Neuroscience February (2005) This Review article outlines how neurotransmission is modulated by lipids and lipid-modifying enzymes.

●Close encounters of different kinds: dendritic cells and NK cells take centre stage. Degli-Esposti, M. A. & Smyth, M. J. Nature Reviews Immunology February (2005) The authors of this article highlight the impact of crosstalk between natural killer cells and dendritic cells on the design of immune-based therapies for the control of infection and cancer.

●Control of DNA replication and its potential clinical exploitation. Gonzalez, M. A., Tachibana, K. K., Laskey, R. A. & Coleman, N. Nature Reviews Cancer February (2005) This Innovation article discusses the potential use of minichromosome maintenance proteins and their regulators, which limit DNA replication to one time per cell cycle, as clinical biomarkers.

●A mismatched role for Bcl-2. La Thangue, N. B. Nature Cell Biology February (2005) The finding that the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl2 is linked to DNA mismatch repair is discussed in this News and Views piece.

●The search for the retinoblastoma cell of origin. Dyer, M. A. & Bremner, R. Nature Reviews Cancer February (2005)

●The humanization of N -glycosylation pathways in yeast. Wildt, S. & Gerngross, T. U. Nature Reviews Microbiology February (2005) The authors review the progress in humanizing glycosylation pathways in yeast and filamentous fungi to overcome their one main drawback in making therapeutic recombinant proteins.

●Neonatal screening by DNA microarray: spots and chips. Green, N. S. & Pass, K. A. Nature Reviews Genetics February (2005) In this Opinion article, the issue of whether genetic screening of newborns could be improved by switching from protein analysis to DNA-microarray-based screens is discussed.