Protein found to control the early migration of neurons
Saturday, September 25, 2010 - 18:14
in Biology & Nature
Long before a baby can flash her first smile, sprout a first tooth or speak a first word, the neurons that will form her central nervous system must take their first, crucial steps. And these steps must be careful to take the right neurons to the right places and avert developmental disasters that could thwart those other baby firsts from ever coming to pass. Now new research promises a deeper understanding of how this essential form of cell migration occurs, finding a gene that works behind the scenes to control a closely related adhesion gene that helps keep young neurons on the right track.