Like a plug and a socket, a nerve and a muscle fiber mesh at the neuromuscular junction. New work reveals that an extracellular matrix protein called laminin shapes both sides of the junction to ...

A synthetic optoelectronic synapse between an artificial neuron and muscle. (Courtesy: Yeongjun Lee) Researchers in Korea and the US have engineered a light-activated synthetic synapse that enables an ...

The muscle-specific receptor tyrosine kinase (MuSK) is part of a receptor complex, activated by neural agrin, that orchestrates the differentiation of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). To gain insight ...

Among stem cell biologists there are few better-known proteins than nestin, whose very presence in an immature cell identifies it as a "stem cell," such as a neural stem cell. As helpful as this is to ...

While the brain is composed of two types of cells, glia tend to receive far less attention for their importance in brain function and disease than the more celebrated neurons. But scientists have ...

Synaptic connections are made and broken in an activity-dependent manner in diverse regions of the nervous system. However, whether activity is strictly necessary for synapse elimination has not been ...

A UCSF study has found that a specific signaling link between neurons and muscles in the fruit fly is essential for keeping the insect's nervous system stable. The findings are relevant for ongoing ...

Aarhus, Denmark, 1 March 2024 – NMD Pharma A/S, a clinical-stage biotech dedicated to developing novel and improved treatments for patients living with neuromuscular diseases, today announces that it ...

Like a plug and a socket, a nerve and a muscle fiber mesh at the neuromuscular junction. New work by Nishimune et al published in the Journal of Cell Biology reveals that an extracellular matrix ...