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Editorial

Nature Cell Biology 11, 509 (1 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/ncb0509-509b

Focus on host subversion

Viruses must infect cells to complete the intracellular phase of their life cycle. They have evolved a broad palette of ingenious mechanisms to exploit host cell biology, using the host's metabolic and regulatory pathways to facilitate their proliferation while providing a niche to evade immune detection.