Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Peripheral nerve myelination is adversely affected in the most common form of the hereditary peripheral neuropathy called Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. This form, classified as CMT1A, is caused by a 1.4 Mb duplication on chromosome 17, which includes the abundantly expressed Schwann cell myelin gene, Peripheral Myelin Protein 22 (PMP22).
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have found a switch that redirects helper cells in the peripheral nervous system into “repair” mode, a form that restores damaged axons. Axons are long fibers on neurons that transmit nerve impulses. The peripheral nervous system, the signaling network outside the brain and spinal cord, has some ability to …
Every day, Waisman Center researcher John Svaren deals with nerves – peripheral nerves, that is. Peripheral nerves connect the brain and spinal cord to our limbs and organs, serving as vital communication relays that allow us to sense and respond to the world around us. “These nerves are really interesting because they contain some of …
John Svaren, PhD’s paper “Genome editing-enabled HTS assays expand drug target pathways for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease,” examines how the use of genome editing places his research one step closer to a potential cure for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered how a defect in a single master gene disrupts the process by which several genes interact to create myelin, a fatty coating that covers nerve cells and increases the speed and reliability of their electrical signals.
