Communication problems in the brain
Thursday, January 21, 2010 - 13:07
in Biology & Nature
For brain cells to communicate, the contacts to each other must function. The protein molecule neuroligin-1 plays an important role in this as it stimulates the necessary maturation processes at the contact sites (synapses) of the nerves. A synaptic maturation disorder is possibly involved in the development of autism. Dr Thomas Dresbach and his team from the Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Heidelberg, in cooperation with the study group led by Professor Dr Thomas Kuner at the same institute and Professor Dr Nils Brose, Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Goettingen, have published their results in the prestigious international journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)...