●Virology: fresh assault on hepatitis C. Charles M. Rice, Nature 30 October (2003) Charles Rice examines the exciting implications of a promising new small-molecule inhibitor active against the hepatitis C virus protease. Hepatitis C virus causes severe liver disease and afflicts about 170 million people worldwide.

●Metabolic engineering for drug discovery and development Chaitan Khosla & Jay D. Keasling Nature Reviews Drug Discovery December (2003) This Timeline examines how metabolic engineering has gained acceptance as a useful tool for the discovery and development of new natural product drugs.

●Bacterial battalions join war against cancer Gunjan Sinha Nature Medicine, October (2003)

This News article reports recent progress in developing genetically modified bacterial toxins that can kill cancer cells.

●Proteomics: where's Waldo in yeast? James A. Wohlschlegel & John R. Yates Nature 16 October (2003)

News & Views article on the latest results from Erin O'Shea's laboratory, which have provided the most complete picture so far of the expression levels of yeast proteins and where they are found in the cell.

●Routine tests reveal unknown strains of BSE prions Marika Willerroider Nature 16 October

Until now, all known cases of BSE have been caused by the same prion strain. Reporting from the International Prion Conference in Munich, this News article highlights detection of BSE variants.

●Polio eradication scheme suffers summer setback Bruce Diamond Nature Medicine, October (2003)

Resurgent polio virus in India has become a cause for concern. This News article assesses the reasons for the recent increases in polio cases.

●Dendritic cell control of pathogen-driven T-cell polarization Martien L. Kapsenberg Nature Reviews Immunology December (2003

●Health chiefs poised to step up US scrutiny of microbe research Erika Check Nature 16 October (2003)

●The outs and ins of transposition: from Mu to kangaroo M. Joan Curcio & Keith M. Derbyshire Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology November (2003) Transposons are ubiquitous in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. This review examines different mechanisms of transposition and the implications of transposition for genome organization and evolution.