Understanding the identity of current drug targets could aid the development of new drugs. In their Analysis article, Schiöth and colleagues use the DrugBank database to examine the drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration over the past 30 years, and analyse the interactions of these drugs with therapeutic targets encoded by the human genome; they identify 435 effect-mediating targets and discuss trends in their exploitation. The three Reviews this month cover diverse therapeutic areas. First, Punt and colleagues discuss the recent major advances in immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer and issues in their clinical development, and also highlight promising new directions such as the unexpected positive interactions between immunotherapy and chemotherapy. In the second Review, Szallasi and colleagues summarize the pathophysiological roles of transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channels and opportunities for therapeutic intervention, focusing on pain, as well as skin, pulmonary, urological and hereditary disorders. Neuromuscular disorders are mostly inherited conditions that are characterized by the progressive loss of muscle tissue and premature death; in the third Review, Muntoni and Wood describe recent progress in the use of antisense oligonucleotide-based therapies targeting RNA for the treatment of specific neuromuscular diseases. Finally, this month we are featuring a poster and video illustrating advances in the development of oral anticoagulants that could provide long-sought alternatives to warfarin, which was introduced more than 50 years ago. The poster and video were produced with exclusive support from Boehringer Ingelheim and are freely available at http://www.nature.com/nrd/posters/warfarin. As always, Nature Publishing Group carries sole responsibility for all editorial content.