News & Views in 2010

A comprehensive study identifies sequence features that predict tissue-specific alternative splicing.

A new method for characterizing signaling responses to pairs of agonists predicts how cells react to higher-order combinations of external stimuli.

Large-scale production of human embryonic stem cells will require improved culture methods.

Zero-mode waveguides illuminate the process of translation.

Can mouse cancer models predict the results of phase 3 clinical trials?

Multiparametric imaging of siRNA screening data sheds light on endocytosis.

Advances in sequencing platforms promise to make this technology more accessible.

A collaborative effort between pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies and academia to qualify biomarkers for kidney toxicity provides a model for investigating and identifying reliable safety markers for preclinical applications.

New methods for analyzing RNA-Seq data enable de novo reconstruction of the transcriptome.

An engineered centromere-specific histone could enable homozygous diploid lines to be generated at high frequency, simplifying crop breeding.

Therapeutic inhibition of a microRNA reduces metastasis formation in a mouse model of breast cancer.

Mouse fibroblasts are reprogrammed to functional neurons by expression of a few transcription factors.

Transfer of a pattern-recognition immune receptor to a crop confers resistance to several bacterial pathogens.

A severe inherited neuromuscular disease is corrected in mice by intravenous gene delivery.

Acute myeloid leukemia stem cells can be made susceptible to chemotherapy by inducing them to divide.

What can we learn from the first genome sequences obtained from cancerous cells?

High-throughput RNAi screens in human cells suggest new approaches to curb influenza virus infection.