In recent months a bumper crop of genomes has been completed, including the fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) and rice (Oryza sativa). Two large-scale studies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein complexes provided a picture of the eukaryotic proteome as a network of complexes. Amongst the other stories of interest was a demonstration that proteomic analysis of blood samples can be used to detect ovarian cancer, perhaps even as early as stage I.