Neuroscience

The nervous system is fundamental to the body’s ability to maintain itself, to sense the environment, to move and react to stimuli, and to generate and control behavior.

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Press Release No. 1 Berlin

Living without Pain – The African Naked Mole-Rat

Acid and Chili Peppers Produce no Pain – Researchers attribute Pain Insensitivity to Selection Pressure Arising from an Extreme Habitat
Cross-section of the skin
Press Release No. 25 Berlin

MDC Scientists Reveal Role of Gene in Sensitivity to Thermal Pain

The skin is the largest human sensory organ. What is not fully understood is how the skin responds to stimuli, especially to pain. Research by Nevena Milenkovic, Christina Frahm, Professor Gary Lewin and Dr. Alistair Garratt of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin-Buch, Germany, has now demonstrated that Stem Cell Factor (SCF) and its receptor, c-Kit, play a central role in tuning the responsiveness of sensory neurons to heat stimuli.
Press Release No. 23 Berlin

Knocked out in Mice: Cause for Massive Cell Death after Spinal Cord Injury – Researchers Working on the Development of Drugs to Limit Neuronal Death

Neurons die en masse when the spinal cord is injured or when a person suffers a stroke. Researchers of the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, and of Aarhus University, Denmark, have unraveled the molecular mechanism which causes the death not only of damaged neurons, but also of healthy nerve cells.
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Press Release No. 16 Berlin

MDC Scientists Discover Novel Regulator for the Development of the Nervous System

Nerve cells must perform millions of neuronal processes and form connections between them during embryonic development to ensure that the nervous system will function properly.
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Press Release No. 40 Berlin

MDC Researchers: A Protein Essential for Touch Sensation - First Evidence for a Touch Receptor Gene in Mammals

Christiane Wetzel could show that mice lacking SLP3 are unable to distinguish normally between...
garratt1
Science

Control of Peripheral Nerve Myelination by the β-Secretase BACE1

The protease BACE1 (beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1) is essential for the...
Press Release No. 30 Berlin

Researchers Discover new Key Function of an Enzyme in the Nervous System – Impact on Drug Development against Alzheimer`s Disease

Ever since scientists first elucidated the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathology and loss of nerve cells in Alzheimer’s disease, drug companies have been working to develop drugs which will inhibit the outbreak of this severe form of dementia.
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Press Release No. 28 Berlin

New Insights into the Cause of Alzheimer’s Disease – Possible Starting Points for Developing Causative Therapies

Alzheimer’s, like Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, belongs to the group of...
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Press Release No. 27 Berlin

Molecular Chaperones Protect Cells – New Family Discovered

Falsely folded proteins and their aggregations in neurons are considered to be the cause of neurodegenerative diseases, among them Chorea Huntington. Dr. Ulrich Hartl from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich has identified a new family of molecular chaperones that prevent proteins from “misbehaving” and ensure that they fold properly. This he reported at the International Conference “Neurodegenerative Diseases: Molecular Mechanisms in a Functional Genomics Framework” in the Max Delbrück Communications Center (MDC.C) in Berlin, Germany.
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Press Release No. 26 Berlin

Green Tea Slows Down Plaque Formation in Huntington’s Disease

First Results in Model Organisms - Green tea can apparently inhibit the formation of the lethal protein aggregates that are a characteristic feature of Huntington’s disease (HD). This finding was reported by Dagmar E. Ehrnhoefer, a member of the research group of Dr. Erich Wanker of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin Buch, Germany, at the international conference “Neurodegenerative Diseases: Molecular Mechanisms in a Functional Genomics Framework” in Berlin.