Riddle of proteins in the brain solved

Erin Schuman awarded the Körber European Science Prize, worth one million euros

01-Jul-2024 - The American neurobiologist Erin Schuman is a pioneer in neurobiology. Schuman’s work has revolutionised our understanding of how individual brain cells – so called neurons – work. She discovered that and how proteins, as critical building blocks of the cells, are locally produced at the ...

Neuroscientists illuminate how brain cells deep in the cortex operate in freely moving mice

This new miniature microscope is a game changer for exploring the link between neural activity and complex animal behavior

01-Dec-2022 - How can we see what neurons deep in the cortex are doing during behavior? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Neurobiology of Behavior - caesar (MPINB) have developed a miniature microscope small enough to be carried on the head of a freely moving mouse and capable of measuring ...

Primates and non-primates differ in the architecture of their neurons

Various mammalian species and high-resolution microscopy reveal the variable axonal origin

08-Jun-2022 - High-resolution microscopy now enabled an international research team to enlarge the knowledge about species-specific differences of the architecture of cortical neurons. Researchers from the research group Developmental Neurobiology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum around Professor Petra Wahle, in ...

Novel sensors enable precise measurement of dopamine

Carbon nanotubes glow brighter in the presence of neurotransmitters. This facilitates the easy and accurate measurement of signals between nerve cells

30-May-2022 - Dopamine is an important signalling molecule for nerve cells. Its concentration could not be precisely determined with both high spatial or temporal resolution until now. A new method has now made this possible: A research team from Bochum, Göttingen and Duisburg used modified carbon nanotubes ...

New method makes masked proteins in nerve cells visible

"This method opens new doors to the study of hard-to-label proteins in living neurons"

23-Nov-2021 - The research groups of Prof. Dr. Markus Sauer from the Biocenter and Dr. Gerti Beliu from the Rudolf Virchow Center for Integrative and Translational Bioimaging at the University of Würzburg, as well as the group of Dr. Daniel Choquet from the Bordeaux Neurocampus department of Bordeaux ...

Scientists gain new understanding of how brain cells talk

Research could help in the treatment of mental health conditions and memory diseases

21-Oct-2021 - Experts from the University of Nottingham have discovered that reversing the modification of molecular messages at synapses in the human brain, may contribute to reversible mental health conditions such as anxiety, and memory diseases such as dementia. The findings, published in Molecular ...

What happens in brain cells affected by Alzheimer’s disease?

Studies on tissue from patients and mini-brains made from stem cells shed light on the disease

15-Jun-2021 - In addition to plaques that accumulate outside of nerve cells in the brain, Alzheimer’s disease is also characterised by changes inside these cells. Researchers from the Cell Signalling research group at the Chair of Molecular Biochemistry at RUB, headed by Dr. Thorsten Müller, have been studying ...

Novel sensor implant radically improves significance of NMR brain scans

Researchers present a new method that shows single neuron data

27-Nov-2019 - A team of neuroscientists and electrical engineers from Germany and Switzerland developed a highly sensitive implant that enables to probe brain physiology with unparalleled spatial and temporal resolution. Now published in Nature Methods, they introduce an ultra-fine needle with an integrated ...

Unique fingerprint: What makes nerve cells unmistakable?

12-Sep-2019 - Protein variations that result from the process of alternative splicing control the identity and function of nerve cells in the brain. This allows organisms to build a highly complex neuronal network with only a limited number of genes. The study describing a detailed map of neuronal splicing ...

See how you feel

New method visualizes release of the messenger dopamine in the brain

22-Jan-2019 - All feelings, motivations, and actions originate within our brain. In this process, the communication between brain cells with the help of messengers plays an essential role. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne have now developed a method to visualize when ...