Stumpf and colleagues used ribosome profiling — deep sequencing of ribosome-protected mRNA fragments — to investigate the role of translational regulation of gene expression in the mammalian cell cycle. Working with human cells, they found that there is pervasive translational regulation of the expression of genes that have important roles in the cell cycle. In addition, functionally related genes, including those involved in metabolism, DNA repair and nuclear transport, were found to be translationally co-regulated, which indicates that translation mediates coordinated gene expression.