To analyze malaria disease mechanisms and explore better treatment options, Hesperos, a company based in Orlando, Florida, has developed a malaria disease model on a chip that integrates four human tissue constructs. New treatments are urgently needed because the malaria pathogen has become resistant to drugs. To find new drugs more quickly and effectively, organ-on-a-chip technologies may be well suited.

As published online in Nature in late June, a study suggests that although the beginnings of multiple sclerosis are based on autoimmune disease, the progression of the disease in individual patients depends partly on how well the brain copes with the autoimmune attack.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Anne Spang from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has studied the lipid metabolism process in yeast cells and human cells in more detail. They have discovered that the protein Arf1 (ADP-ribosylation factor 1) acts like a molecular switch to regulate how many lipids are converted into ATP in the body.

Scientists at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University in Boston have recreated a model of reflux disease (barrett's disease) in vitro. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the cellular and molecular triggers of this disease and to develop appropriate drug therapies.