Issues

Summary: This Editorial discusses how DMM and its publisher, The Company of Biologists, have adapted the financial support they provide to the biological community in these unprecedented times.

Summary: Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is a rare disease characterised by progressive heterotopic bone formation. Here, we present a comprehensive summary of the recent literature on this debilitating condition and discuss approaches to solving this clinical puzzle.

Summary: This Special Article discusses the current model systems to study the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19.

Summary: Vaccine development for tuberculosis requires understanding of neonatal and infant immunity. Here, we compare the animal models of neonatal and infant immunity and highlight the potential of piglets as important models for vaccine development.

Summary: Chemotaxis inhibitory protein of Staphylococcus aureus dampens C5a-mediated responses in human-C5aR1 knock-in mice. Feasibility studies in a human phase I trial failed due to high levels of existing natural antibodies causing adverse effects.

Summary: Human salivary-gland-derived organoids can be used for in vitro analyses of the morphological and functional changes associated with salivary gland diseases and dysfunctions.

Summary: Nitric oxide defects link bicuspid aortic valve formation and aortopathy through inhibition of elastic fibre formation in vascular smooth muscle cells within the ascending aorta of Nos3^−/− mice.

Editor's choice: The newly established rat model carrying in-frame mutations in the Dmd gene exhibits the dystrophic phenotype and abnormal dystrophin expression profile, similar to patients with Becker muscular dystrophy.

Summary: Comparative analyses of temporal cohorts of the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down syndrome reveal phenotypic variability affecting neurodevelopment and learning and memory behaviors, calling into question the validity of this model.

Summary: Cercosporamide, a metabolite from the fungus Ascochyta aquiliqiae, was identified as a potent bone morphogenetic protein receptor (BMPR) type I kinase inhibitor through a zebrafish embryo phenotypic screen.

Summary: The Dmd Δ52-54 mouse model, which carries a deletion of Dmd exons 52-54, emulates Duchenne muscular dystrophy disease progression in skeletal muscle and has early onset of cardiac functional abnormalities.

Summary: Rabphilin is necessary for the maintenance of Drosophila nephrocytes. Knockdown of Rabphilin causes deregulation of the filtration and the reabsorption processes, which are restored by the administration of retinoic acid.

Summary: Mice with glycogen storage disease type 1a (GSD1a) show altered expression of several microRNAs, correlated with various pathologic liver states. This might help us to understand the progression of the disease and the development of late GSD1a-associated complications.