This continuing series gathers and presents original research results on the leading edge of medicine and biology. Each article has been carefully selected in an attempt to present substantial topical data across a broad spectrum. Topics discussed include muscarinic and nicotinic receptors as drug targets in disorders of the central nervous system; immune modulation for the treatment of HSV; state of the art and a new approach to the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary edema; complications of colonoscopy requiring surgical or combined therapy; combining high throughput gene expression profiling and integrative systems biology analysis; drug treatment of early rheumatoid arthritis and placebo, nocebo and child neuropsychiatry.