| Popis: |
Neuroscientist Erin Schuman says her career goal is to understand exactly how single neurons work. Specifically, she wants to know how neurons keep the right proteins at the right concentration in the right place at the right time to function properly in the brain. Schuman is perhaps best known for her role in discovering that neurons can synthesize proteins outside the cell body and within dendrites, a phenomenon called local protein synthesis. Her Inaugural Article (1) expands on that finding by exploring how messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules move in real time around synapses and get translated into proteins. Schuman and her husband, neuroscientist Gilles Laurent, are cofounders and directors of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Schuman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020 and discussed her most recent work with PNAS. Erin Schuman. Image credit: Camille Laurent (Frankfurt International School, Oberursel, Germany). > PNAS:What was the impact of the discovery of local protein synthesis within dendrites on neuroscience? > Schuman:Most of a neuron’s real estate is outside the cell body, in the dendrites and the axons. But people hadn’t thought much about how that huge space could be served in terms of proteins. … |
