PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review covers experimental developments in the laboratory and their translation to clinical stroke trials over the year from 3 August 2001 to 2002. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent findings include novel observations in the areas of excitotoxicity, free radical injury, neuro-inflammation and apoptosis. A key clinical finding this year has been the translation of the effects of hypothermia in global ischemia to two successful trials in cardiac arrest with patients cooled within 4-8 h following resuscitation achieving good neurological outcomes, as compared with their normothermic controls. An era of molecular imaging in stroke research is presaged by the first reports of enhanced magnetic resonance or labeling with supramagnetic contrast agents. SUMMARY: Although none of the drugs in focal ischemia has translated from experimental models, for the first time there is evidence of cytoprotection for the brain that has been translated from the laboratory to man.