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VIDEO: Volumetric reconstruction of the L4 C. elegans neuropil (from EM serial sections) with neurons from the four strata highlighted (S1-Red, S2-Purple, S3-Blue, S4-Green). view more
Credit: Mark Moyle et al., Nature, 2021.
WOODS HOLE, Mass. Understanding how the brain works is a paramount goal of medical science. But with its billions of tightly packed, intermingled neurons, the human brain is dauntingly difficult to visualize and map, which can provide the route to therapies for long-intractable disorders.
In a major advance published next week in Nature, scientists for the first time report the structure of a fundamental type of tissue organization in brains, called neuropil, as well as the developmental pathways that lead to neuropil assembly in the roundworm
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IMAGE: Yale researchers and collaborators have devised a strategy that allows them to see this previously impenetrable process unfold in a living animal the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, they report February. view more
Credit: The work is the result of a decade long collaboration between the labs of Colón-Ramos and Smita Krishnaswamy of Yale; Hari Shroff of the National Institutes of Health; Zhirong Bao.
The formation of a brain is one of nature s most staggeringly complex accomplishments. The intricate intermingling of neurons and a labyrinth of connections also make it a particularly difficult feat for scientists to study.