●Insight on heart diseaseNature 10 January (2002) Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. This Insight contains reviews on the latest developments in heart research, including: Seven-transmembrane-spanning receptors and heart function Rockman, H. A., Koch, W. J. & Lefkowitz, R. J. Cardiac channelopathies Marbán, E. The failing heart Towbin, J. A. & Bowles, N. E. Myocardial gene therapy Isner, J. M.

●Protein complexes take the bait Kumar, A. & Snyder, M. Nature 10 January (2002) This News and Views article discusses two of the first studies aiming to systematically log the ways in which proteins work together in the yeast, which indicate that many proteins might have more than one role, and show how such research can provide insight into corresponding networks in humans.

●Natural products in cancer chemotherapy: past, present and future Mann, J. Nature Reviews Cancer February (2002) Natural products or their structural relatives comprise about 50% of the drugs that are used for cancer chemotherapy. Although combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening could, in theory, provide access to a wide range of new, totally synthetic drugs for genomics-derived targets, Mann argues that, in reality, natural products are likely to provide many of the templates for the construction of novel compounds with enhanced biological properties.

●The vacuolar (H+)-ATPases — nature's most versatile proton pumps Nishi, T. & and Forgac, M. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology February (2002) Vacuolar (H+)-ATPases, which are crucially involved in membrane transport and acid secretion, could be potential targets in the development of therapies for diverse diseases, including osteoporosis and cancer. Nishi and Forgac describe recent advances in our understanding of the structure, function and regulation of these proton pumps.

●Focus on ion channel structureNature Reviews Neuroscience February (2002)

●The microarray way to tailored cancer treatment Van't Veer, L. J. & De Jong, D. Nature Medicine January (2002)

●Chemokines as therapeutic targets Proudfoot, A. E. I. Nature Reviews Immunology February (2002) Chemokines and their receptors are involved in diseases ranging from asthma to AIDS. Proudfoot discusses the accumulating evidence that favours targeting chemokine receptors as a therapeutic strategy, despite the apparent redundancy in this family.