Clathrin: now you see me, now you don't!

Endocytic clathrin-coated vesicles are short-lived transport intermediates that ferry cargo macromolecules rapidly into the cell interior. Recent work from the Kirchhausen laboratory indicates that the lifetime of a coated vesicle is extremely short, and assembly of nascent coats aborts abruptly unless reinforced by additional regulatory inputs, most likely cargo capture.