摘要
The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 attracted much attention in 2009,when the human death toll due to infection with this virus in China created a potential world-wide pandemic alert.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 attracted much attention in 2009, when the human death toll due to infection with this virus in China created a potential world-wide pandemic alert. About the same time, induced plufipotent stem cells （iPS） were successfully being established and widely used for the elucidation of the epigenetic program of differentiated cells, marking a new stage in epigenetic research. To show the challenges and the latest progress in these two fields, two well-organized special topics with several review articles by leading experts in their respective fields have been published in successive volumes of Science China Series C-Life Sciences （SCLS） 2009[ 1,2].
