Neuroscience

How neurons talk to each other

Neurons are connected to each other through synapses, sites where signals are transmitted in the form of chemical messengers. Reinhard Jahn, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, has ...

Neuroscience

How proteins control information processing in the brain

A complicated interaction between proteins is needed for information to pass from one nerve cell to the next. Researchers at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have now managed to study this process in the ...

Neuroscience

Synapses always on the starting blocks

While neurons rapidly propagate information in their interior via electrical signals, they communicate with each other at special contact points known as the synapses. Chemical messenger substances, the neurotransmitters, ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Discovery uncovers clue to disarm gonorrhea superbug

Every year, more than 100 million people worldwide develop the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea, with health consequences such as infertility, transmission of the disease to newborn babies, and increased risk of HIV ...

Neuroscience

How synaptic vesicles accumulate glutamate

In the brain, neurons communicate via neurotransmitters, which trigger electrical signals in downstream neurons by binding and activating specific receptors. Neurotransmitters are released through the fusion of synaptic vesicles, ...

Medical research

An unconventional ion channel

Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have identified the first mechanosensitive ion channel to be found in an intracellular vesicle system. It responds to concentration changes within the vesicle, ...

Medical research

Lipids boost the brain

Consuming oils with high polyunsaturated fatty acid content, in particular those containing omega-3s, is beneficial for the health. But the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are poorly known. Researchers at the Institut ...

page 1 from 2