Insight on Research

An international collaboration, including Greg Jefferis’ group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, have published the connectome of the Drosophila fly – the most complex brain to be mapped in its entirety, including 140,000 neurons and over 15 million connections.

Introduction of ultrasound machines has allowed LMB animal technicians to accurately detect pregnancy in mice as early as 5.5 days, which ultimately reduces the number of mice needed for research.

Leo James’ group, in the LMB’s PNAC Division, have worked with Will McEwan’s group at the UK Dementia Research Institute to design two new therapeutics which harnesses cellular machinery to remove tau aggregates, improving motor skills in mice affected by neurodegenerative disease.

Surprising advance to our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, as Diana Arseni and Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division find that frontotemporal lobar degeneration Type C filaments include both annexin A11 and TDP-43 in a unique heteromeric structure.

Marta Shahbazi’s group in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division has determined that contact with extracellular matrix proteins prevents embryonic cells from becoming germ cells.

Ingo Greger’s group, in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, find that low pH causes protonation of histidine 208 embedded within GluA2 NTDs – a mechanism which has potential to tune strength of synaptic transmission and plasticity, key to learning and memory.