Issues

Summary: We asked Deepak Srivastava, Distinguished Professor at UCSF, about his career as an active clinician, research group leader and Director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease.

Summary: We recently interviewed Rudolph Jaenisch, Professor of Biology at MIT, to find out about his career, his perspective on the stem cell field and his goals as president of the ISSCR.

Summary: This short review and accompanying poster highlight recent advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying axon and dendrite specification in vitro and in vivo.

Summary: This review summarises the complex interplay between cellular lineages, signalling pathways, and transcriptional programs necessary to form a vertebrate liver.

Summary: This review highlights the contribution of geometry to the regulation of the neurogenic niche in the mouse and human adult brain for continuous neuronal replacement throughout life.

Summary: In differentiating hESCs, BRACHYURY has cell type-specific targets and functions: it acts with SMAD1 to promote mesoderm specification, while in the endoderm it interacts with SMAD2/3.

Highlighted article: In zebrafish, Mmp9 plays a dual role in wound repair through collagen reorganization: it is overexpressed in chronic tissue damage models and required for acute wound healing in control animals.

Summary: In maturing mouse Paneth cells, Wnt secretion is partly dependent on a Rab8a-mediated anterograde transport of Gpr177. Rab8a is required for Paneth cell maturation.

Summary: Ablation of Dnmt1 in the mouse developing intestine leads to hypomethylation, DNA damage, premature differentiation and apoptosis. In intestinal organoid cultures, Dnmt1 is required for crypt formation.

Highlighted article: Cellularization in the embryo of the beetle Tribolium requires the junction protein Innexin7a, which links the basal membrane to the yolk membrane. This mechanism is distinct from that in Drosophila.

Summary: In the developing Drosophila eye, the TRF2 complex regulates downstream factors including Pdm3 and Cut to control glial proliferation and differentiation, respectively.

Summary: In mouse skin, depletion of the ciliary IFT27 protein impairs SMO and GLI2 trafficking and GLI processing, disrupting HH-dependent hair follicle morphogenesis, but cilia structure is preserved.

Summary: The development of mouse urethral tube is a sexually dimorphic process that requires Fgfr2-mediated cell cycle progression and epithelial maturation in distinct tissue compartments.

Highlighted article: The quantitative analysis of mouse ESC-derived neurons and oligodendrocytes co-cultured in a microfluidic device provides insights into the temporal sequence of the myelination process.