MDC researchers discover molecule responsible for axonal branching

The human brain consists of about 100 billion (1011) neurones, which altogether form about 100 trillion (1014) synaptic connections with each other. A crucial mechanism for the generation of this complex wiring pattern is the formation of neuronal branches. The neurobiologists Dr Hannes Schmidt and Professor Fritz G. Rathjen at the Max Delbrueck Centre for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now discovered a molecule that regulates this vital process. At the same time they have succeeded in elucidating the signalling cascade induced by this molecule...

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