Cover of Trends in Molecular Medicine

Post by Carsten Hoege

Belated congratulations are in order to the authors and illustrators of the cover article for the September issue of Trends in Molecular Medicine! See the cover and associated description below.

Common molecular pathways in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Dementia. Jochen H. Weishaupt, Tony Hyman, Ivan Dikic. Trends in Molecular Medicine, 2016. [PDF][PubMed]

“Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia are related dementias. On pages 769–783, Dikic and colleagues discuss recent findings associating autophagy, vesicle trafficking, and RNA metabolism to neuronal death, identifying common links between these dementias. The cover evokes the therapeutic potential of manipulating such cellular processes to “eat away” at pathogenicity in the brain. Yellow ‘Pacmen’ symbolize ‘autophagy’. Yellow dots represent ‘physiological stress granules’, maturing into ‘bad stress granule monsters’ (light blue, center). The monsters symbolize ‘mitochondria’, ‘protein aggregates’ and ‘aberrant stress granules’. Illustration by Julia Eichhorn. Cover design by Catarina Sacristán.”