●Balancing life and death. Moser, M. Nature Immunology June (2004). The lifespan of a dendritic cell (DC) is a crucial parameter of the immune response, and in this News & Views article, Muriel Moser discusses new data indicating that the innate and adaptive immune responses regulate DC survival by distinct molecular mechanisms.

●The mosquito's sting. Saul, A. Nature Medicine May (2004) TEP1 is a mosquito protein similar to the mammalian complement protein C3. Previous studies have indicated that TEP1 mediates mosquito bacterial resistance; however, as discussed in this News & Views article, recent data implicates TEP1 in mosquito defence against malaria parasites.

●Elaborate interactions between the immune and nervous systems. Steinman, L. Nature Immunology June (2004)

●Polio eradication, cessation of vaccination and re-emergence of disease. Minor, P. D. Nature Reviews Microbiology June (2004) Eradication of polio virus is now within reach, and, as discussed in this review article, we need to consider whether or not to stop vaccination when we reach this goal: what will be the consequences of stopping vaccination, and what can be done to prevent disease re-emergence?

●γ-Secretase: proteasome of the membrane? Kopan, R. & Ilagan, M. X. G. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology June (2004) γ-Secretase is a protease involved in amyloidogenic Aβ peptide generation and Notch signalling. However, the authors of this Opinion article suggest that recent data indicates that the main biological activity of γ-secretase is the degradation of transmembrane proteins.

●Can innate immunity be enhanced to treat microbial infections? Finlay, B. B. & Hancock, R. E. W. Nature Reviews Microbiology June (2004)

●Antibody-directed radiation cancer therapy. Milenic, D. E., Brady, E. D. & Brechbiel, M. W. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery June (2004) This review describes the development and use of radiolabelled monoclonal antibody therapies in haematological cancers, two of which have recently been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

●Self-help for insulin cells. Zaret, K. Nature 6 May (2004) This News & Views article summarizes the data and discusses the implications of a recent paper reporting that insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreas are derived mostly from pre-existing β-cells, and not from pancreatic stem cells as previously thought.