EDITORIAL
- Rethinking cancer: current challenges and opportunities in cancer research
Summary: Pablo Meyer and Ross Cagan discuss the main themes emerging from a recent workshop ‘Rethinking Cancer’, highlighting the key challenges faced by the research community and outlining potential strategies to promote translation of basic findings.
A MODEL FOR LIFE
- Waging war against pancreatic cancer: an interview with David Tuveson
Summary: David Tuveson describes some of the key moments and breakthroughs in his remarkable career, and the path that he's followed in his quest for a cure for pancreatic cancer.
REVIEWS
- In vivo models in breast cancer research: progress, challenges and future directions
Summary: This Review provides a summary of the many varied uses of mouse models in breast cancer research focusing on their strengths, challenges and future directions.
- Identifying genes for neurobehavioural traits in rodents: progress and pitfalls
Summary: This Review discusses the rodent resources that exist to map neurobehavioural traits at high resolution and identify causal variants and genes.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- MAPK signaling pathways and HDAC3 activity are disrupted during differentiation of emerin-null myogenic progenitor cells
Editors' choice: HDAC3, p38 MAPK and ERK signaling are altered during differentiation of myogenic progenitors lacking emerin; pharmacological activation or inhibition of these signaling proteins rescues specific stages of myogenic differentiation.
- A Drosophila model of myeloproliferative neoplasm reveals a feed-forward loop in the JAK pathway mediated by p38 MAPK signalling
Summary: Pro-tumourigenic crosstalk occurs between the p38 MAPK pathway and JAK signalling in a Drosophila model of myeloproliferative neoplasm.
- Heterozygous Vangl2Looptail mice reveal novel roles for the planar cell polarity pathway in adult lung homeostasis and repair
Summary: Manipulating the PCP pathway may provide new approaches to treat damaged lung tissue.
- Gene expression profiles among murine strains segregate with distinct differences in the progression of radiation-induced lung disease
Summary: Rational mouse model selection is crucial for identifying new therapeutic targets and screening medical interventions in acute pneumonitis and/or late fibrosis following thoracic irradiation.
- Overexpression of mitochondrial oxodicarboxylate carrier (ODC1) preserves oxidative phosphorylation in a yeast model of Barth syndrome
Summary: Transport of oxodicarboxylic acid (ODC1) across the mitochondrial inner membrane is a potential target for the treatment of BTHS patients and other diseases caused by mitochondrial dysfunction.
- Towards trans-diagnostic mechanisms in psychiatry: neurobehavioral profile of rats with a loss-of-function point mutation in the dopamine transporter gene
Summary: The first systematic RDoc study of a disease mechanism proposes dopamine transporter DAT mutant rats as a model for drug development, targeting a hyperdopaminergic state.
- New insights into the regulatory function of CYFIP1 in the context of WAVE- and FMRP-containing complexes
Summary: CYFIP1 and FMRP interact antagonistically during neuromuscular junction growth in the fly and during new neuron differentiation in the olfactory bulb of the adult mouse.
- Genetic dissection of anterior segment dysgenesis caused by a Col4a1 mutation in mouse
Summary: Key pathogenic events in anterior segment dysgenesis, a congenital ocular disease with complex etiology, are recapitulated in a mouse model of Col4a1-related ASD.
RESOURCE ARTICLE
- Immortalized human myotonic dystrophy muscle cell lines to assess therapeutic compounds
Summary: Myotonic dystrophy muscle cell models displaying characteristic disease-associated molecular features can be used to investigate molecular pathophysiological mechanisms and evaluate therapeutic approaches.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
DMM and COVID-19
We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on researchers worldwide. The Editors of all The Company of Biologists’ journals have been considering ways in which we can alleviate concerns that members of our community may have around publishing activities during this time. Read about the actions we are taking at this time.
Please don’t hesitate to contact the Editorial Office if you have any questions or concerns.
Professor Elizabeth Patton appointed as DMM’s next Editor-in-Chief
We are pleased to announce that The Company of Biologists directors have appointed Professor Elizabeth Patton as DMM's new Editor-in-Chief. As Paresh Vyas writes in his Editorial, Liz ‘brings vitality and a passion for the remit of DMM, and is deeply embedded in the community.’
Did you know DMM Conference Travel Grants can be used for online meetings?
With travel restrictions still in place, we want to continue supporting early-career researchers in their careers. DMM’s Conference Travel Grants can now be used to attend virtual and online scientific meetings, workshops, conferences and training courses.
The current application round closes on 8 February 2021 – find out more.
Identification of MYOM2 as a candidate gene in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Tetralogy of Fallot, and its functional evaluation in the Drosophila heart
Research from Silke Sperling and colleagues uses Drosophila to identify MYOM2 as a candidate gene in congenital heart malformations in this issue’s Editor’s choice.
C. elegans as a disease model
A new Research article from Doyle et al., models spinal muscular atrophy in C. elegans to show that that targeting therapies to muscle cells is more effective than neuronal delivery. Find more research using C. elegans as a disease model in our latest subject collection.
Call for papers – The RAS Pathway: Diseases, Therapeutics and Beyond
Our upcoming special issue is now welcoming submissions until 1 April 2021. Guest-edited by Donita Brady (Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Arvin Dar (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA), the issue will focus on the targeting the RAS pathway. Find out more about the issue and how to submit your manuscript.
Interview – Kim Landry-Truchon and Nicolas Houde
In an interview, first authors Kim Landry-Truchon and Nicolas Houde discuss their mouse model of the early stages of pleuropulmonary blastoma, reflecting on the implications of their work and the future of their field.