Issues

Summary: A recent study in Nature demonstrated that ongoing mutational processes cause significant heterogeneity of widely used cancer cell lines. In this Editorial, the authors discuss the implications of these findings for the cancer and cell biology fields.

Summary: In this Review, we provide an overview on how epigenetic processes are altered in kidney development and disease, and discuss how CRISPR-modified kidney organoids can help us to understand the function of epigenetic marks.

Summary: This Review summarises the current state of the art of single-cell techniques and their potential applications in deciphering the heterogeneous nature of diseases and tailoring personalised therapies.

Summary: Insights into immuno-metabolism open up new avenues for therapeutic intervention. The study presented here suggests that inhibition of glucose suppresses inflammation in a mouse model of ulcerative colitis.

Summary: The authors generate a new Drosophila model of MPS VII, which offers insights into the pathophysiology of this disease, and also uncovers the therapeutic potential of resveratrol in treating MPS VII.

Summary: Here, we report, for the first time, a major inherited mutation in a diabetes-prone animal model that adversely affects mitochondrial function and leads, through oxidative stress, to the development of diet-induced diabetes.

Summary: Mice harboring a defined microbiota of the altered Schaedler flora were identified as a reliable tool to assess prolonged Escherichia coli intestinal colonization and activation of the host inflammatory response.

Summary: Chemical library screens using Drosophila melanogaster as a model of nephrolithiasis can be performed in a high-throughput and efficient manner, leading to candidate drugs with clinical potential in kidney stone patients.

Summary: A novel genetic mouse model of sporadic Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) recapitulates placentomegaly, but placental defects lead to late gestation fetal growth restriction, which contrasts with the fetal overgrowth characteristic of BWS in humans.

Summary: Chronic inflammation collaborates with loss of function of the prostate-specific tumor-suppressor NKX3.1 to promote prostate cancer initiation, increase cellular plasticity and impair cellular differentiation.

Summary: The first Caenorhabditis elegans model to study brain dopamine-serotonin vesicular transport disease, demonstrating impairment of pharyngeal pumping and grazing phenotypes.

Summary: Increased levels of FGFR2c cause craniofacial bone hypoplasia, microtia and cleft palate, but not craniosynostosis. Introduction of an extra Fgfr2c allele into a mouse model for Crouzon syndrome partially rescues the craniosynostosis phenotype.

Editor's choice: A new method to xenotransplant murine bone marrow cells into zebrafish blastulae that generates hundreds of transient chimeric animals with functional murine blood progenitor cells and innate immune cells.

Summary: A freely available interactive tool is presented that explores the optimal design of a population PDX preclinical study.