Issues

Summary: Samuel Jackson and Gareth Thomas discuss the limitations of patient-derived xenograft mouse models and highlight initiatives to maximise the use of human tissue in cancer research, with the goal of improving translation and reducing animal experimentation.

Summary: Translational research for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) should address the development of non-CNS and survival motor neuron (SMN)-independent therapeutic approaches to complement and enhance the benefits of CNS-directed and SMN-dependent therapies.

Summary: In this Review, Kardon et al. discuss the complex etiology of congenital diaphragmatic hernia, as revealed by comprehensive genomic analyses and modeling in mice, and highlight the need for new therapies to treat this developmental disorder.

Editors’ choice: Wnt signalling regulates homeostasis of the gastric epithelium via the Fzd7 receptor, which could be a target for therapeutic intervention in gastric cancer.

Summary: Loss of Meis1 results in motor restlessness in mice, a phenotype resembling human restless legs syndrome, as well as altered sensorimotor gating and improved social discrimination memory.

Summary: A Drosophila model of myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) recapitulates several features of the human disease, identifies apoptosis as a contributing factor to DM2, and is likely to provide a convenient tool for drug screening.

Summary: A mouse mutagenesis model of hereditary coproporphyria has significant genetic and biochemical parallels to that of the human condition.

Summary: An easily reproducible and reliable rat model for peripheral nerve scarring that allows for the effective testing of new therapeutic strategies.

Summary: Toxic effects of neurodegenerative disease proteins on neuronal function and morphology can be addressed using an array of transgenic fluorescent reporters in the adult Drosophila leg.