Reviews & Analysis

In this review Widden and Placzek synthesize studies characterizing the influence that myeloid cell leukemia-1 (MCL1) has on cell proliferation, DNA damage response, autophagy, calcium handling, and mitochondrial quality control to highlight the broader scope that it plays in cellular homeostasis regulation. They discuss which pathways are likely to be impacted by emerging MCL1 inhibitors, as well as highlight non-cancerous disease states that could deploy BH3-mimetics in the future.

In this Review, Laura Martinez-Vidal et al. summarize current knowledge of factors affecting extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling in the context of pathological mechanical changes to tissue properties. They focus on the importance of research on tissue stiffness to the development of diagnostic tools and therapies to treat urological disease.

Gómez-López and co-authors discuss advances in the development of in vitro and in vivo models for lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) and their role in understanding the cellular and molecular processes driving LUSC development and responses to therapy.

In this Review, Petrus-Reurer et al describe the roles of both innate and adaptive immune responses in allogeneic graft rejection, in addition to discuss how such responses are determined by the cellular therapy of interest. They also describe the range of in vitro and in vivo approaches used to examine the immunogenicity of cellular therapies and consider potential confounders and strategies that can be employed to ameliorate immune rejection.

Carrie Breton and colleagues review the literature supporting evidence for transgenerational health effects of environmental exposures by epigenetic mechanisms. This Review summarizes current knowledge based on animal and human cohort studies, and discusses the ethical, legal, and social implications of epigenetic research in humans

Dessalles et al review the responses of vascular endothelial cells to mechanical forces exerted by both blood flow and physical contact with the basement membrane. Special attention is paid to how endothelial cells respond to multiple mechanical cues that are exerted simultaneously.

Bergmann et al. discuss the construction of synthetic uteri to model the earliest stages of human embryogenesis and associated pathologies. They highlight the constituent components from which a synthetic uterus may be engineered, propose a modular approach to assembling synthetic uteri and discuss how these technologies can shed light on implantation failure and uterine pathologies.

In this review article, Karla Santos-de-Frutos and Nabil Djouder discuss the implication of dormant cancer cells in tumour relapse and the roles quiescent and senescent cells may play in this process.

Cody Aros, Carla Pantoja, and Brigitte Gomperts review the key role of Wnt signaling in all aspects of lung development, repair, and disease progression. They provide an overview of recent research findings and highlight where research is needed to further elucidate mechanisms of action, with the aim of improving disease treatments.

Photoreceptor death is central to vision loss in various retinal diseases. Disruption of nutrient availability and cell metabolism may underlie photoreceptor death. In this review, Pan et al. focus on the recent advances in the understanding of photoreceptor metabolism and suggest novel targets for neuroprotective strategies that prevent blindness.

DNA–protein crosslink (DPC) proteases digest the protein component of crosslinks that otherwise can cause genomic instability and disease. Ruggiano and Ramadan discuss recent insights into the roles of DPC proteases in the repair of DPCs and beyond.

Laflamme and Mekhail discuss emerging nuclear roles for LLPS in genome organization, gene expression and DNA repair, highlighting the emerging notion that biomolecular condensates regulate the sequential engagement of molecules in multistep biological processes.

Shuai Jiang discusses the regulation and functional role of the Tet2 enzyme, a regulator of lymphoid and myeloid cell development frequently mutated in haematopoietic cancers. He highlights how Tet2 activity may be modulated to influence cancer immune responses.

In this Review, Lisa Waylen and colleagues provide an overview of techniques used for spatial resolution of gene expression in a tissue or organ. They discuss the advantages, disadvantages and future directions of current methods and illustrate how spatial transcriptomics has impacted our understanding of biology.

Dimple Chakravarty et al. review the rapidly emerging data indicating a higher rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection in men. They note that men in the age group most at risk of infection are also at high risk of prostate cancer, and explore the potential links between these diseases and implications for COVID-19 treatment in prostate cancer patients.

Eve Miguel et al. discuss the potential and practice of wildlife culling to control infectious disease both in the wildlife population and in transmission to humans. They identify several factors that must be considered when using culling, including host and pathogen ecology and eco-sociological contexts.

In this review, Cottrill et al. discuss how the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR) interacts with the membrane into which it is inserted. They summarize recent insight into the ways lipids are imbalanced in CF epithelia and how the lipid environment affects CFTR.

Ellegaard et al. discuss the potential for using ancient environmental DNA (eDNA), combined with resurrection ecology, to analyse trophic interactions and evolutionary adaptation to changing environments. Their Review suggests that these techniques will improve our ability to predict genetic and phenotypic adaptation to environmental stress.

Dalal et al. provide a thorough review of bilateral hemispheric interactions in the context of odor perception and memory. They summarize reports on anatomy, physiology and behavior related to olfaction. This review provides insights on how odor information can be processed unilaterally and/or bilaterally despite the lack of topographical organization.

Everly Conway de Macario et al. present a review of microbial models of human chaperonopathies. They discuss the recent progress in using microbes to model human pathogenic mutations and to elucidate disease mechanisms.