● Quiescent T cells: actively maintaining inactivity. Hua, X. & Thompson, C. B. Nature Immunology December (2001) This News and Views article discusses recent work describing an active role for the nuclear protein Tob in the maintenance of T-cell quiescence.

● CD8+ T cell development: CD4 to the rescue. Robson MacDonald, H. & Werner, H. Nature Immunology December (2001) A News and Views article discussing how gene-ablation studies of the silencer element in the CD4 gene have provided new insight into how CD4 expression is developmentally regulated and the mechanism of CD8 lineage commitment.

● Immune evasion in human papillomavirus-associated cervical cancer. Tindle, R. W. Nature Reviews Cancer January (2001) This Perspective article discusses the numerous mechanisms used by human papillomavirus (HPV) to evade the immune response, and the implications these tactics have on the development of HPV-directed immunotherapy for cervical cancer.

● Annihilating host defense. Frank, M. M. Nature Medicine December (2001) A News and Views article describing a newly identified mechanism used by group A Streptococci to subvert complement-mediated defence and avoid immune destruction.

● HIV-1 and Ebola virus: the getaway driver nabbed. Luban, J. Nature Medicine December (2001) This News and Views article discusses recent work showing that both HIV-1 and Ebola virus rely on a cellular protein Tsg101 (part of the machinery for protein trafficking in healthy uninfected cells) to assemble virions and escape from infected cells.

● Emerging immune targets for the therapy of allergic asthma. Corry, D. B. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery January (2001) In Nature Reviews Drug Discovery , launched this month, David Corry discusses recent developments in our understanding of the pathogenesis of allergic asthma, and how these advances might be applied to the development of improved therapies.

● Insight on diabetes.Nature 13 December (2001) A collection of reviews on type 1 and type 2 diabetes, including:

Global and societal implications of the diabetes epidemic. Zimmet, P., Alberti, K. G. M. M. & Shaw, J. β-Cell death during progression to diabetes. Mathis, D., Vence, L. & Benoist, C. New drug targets for type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Moller, D. E.