Minifocus – Gene-edited zebrafish models take disease research to the next level

The potent combination of CRISPR/Cas9 and zebrafish as a model organism offers enormous potential for research into human diseases caused by point mutations. Three new articles published in DMM from the labs of Lisa Maves, Jeroen Bakkers and Andy Willaert use zebrafish to explore how advances in CRISPR/Cas9 optimisation offer a new level of accuracy and specificity previously out of reach for research into this type of human genetic disorder. A new Editorial by Sergey Prykhozhij and Jason Berman examines the implications of these articles in the progression of zebrafish knock-in models, the advantages and challenges of working with such precise mutants, and the translational relevance of these models for human disease research.

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At a glance – Immune regulation of metastasis: mechanistic insights and therapeutic opportunities

In a new Review and accompanying poster, Olga S. Blomberg, Lorenzo Spagnuolo and Karin E. de Visser discuss the dual role of the immune system in metastasis and summarize promising therapeutic strategies to target tumor-immune interactions.

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Editor's choice – Apolipoprotein E deficiency accelerates atherosclerosis development in miniature pigs

In our newest Editor's choice article, Yifan Dai and colleagues describe an ApoE knockout minipig model that displayed severe hypercholesterolemia and spontaneously developed human-like atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta and coronary arteries within 6 months of feeding on a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet. 

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First Person interviews

Have you seen our interviews with the early-career first authors of our papers? Recently, we caught up with first authors Annekatrien Boel and Georgina Askeland.

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Journal meeting – Blood disorders: models, mechanisms and therapies

Register your interest in our upcoming meeting on blood disorders and their treatment, organised by DMM Editor-in-Chief Monica Justice, Nancy Speck, Paresh Vyas and Leonard Zon. The meeting will bring together diverse front-line researchers, stimulating discussions across basic research and clinical disciplines, and fostering collaborative links among researchers.

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Why should you publish your next paper in DMM?

DMM aims to promote human health by encouraging collaboration between basic and clinical researchers, covering a diverse range of diseases, approaches and models. Our Editors are all active researchers in the field – your peers, colleagues and mentors, who know how much work has gone into every paper. Recently, we have introduced format-free submission, and we accept peer review reports from other journals, making submission as easy as possible for our authors. Send us your next great paper – publish with us and you'll be in good company.

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preLights – Switching melanoma behaviour with STAT3

Hannah Brunsdon highlights a recent preprint from Richard Moriggl and colleagues showing that STAT3 represses the MITF pathway to drive metastasis in melanoma. The preprint also emphasises that there are huge challenges ahead in correctly balancing and timing drug treatment to prevent unwanted activation of genes which can exert large effects on tumour growth and survival.

Back in July, Hannah also highlighted the preprint from the Maves lab that is now published in DMM and features in our minifocus on CRISPR-generated zebrafish models.

Catch up with recent preLights selected for the translational biology community in our latest Table of Contents.