Wired-up

Man and machines are not that different. Our bodies are full of nerve cells that act as natural wires, conducting signals from one place to another. As a copper wire needs insulation to keep electricity flowing on the right course, so our nerves need a natural insulator called myelin. To help understand how this insulation wrapping occurs, scientists have created synthetic fibres (grey horizontal lines pictured) of just the right size to mimic nerves. When combined with a mix of cells of the nervous system, the myelin-producing cells (stained pink) respond to the fibres as though they are nerves, enveloping them in myelin. Holes in the myelin sheath can have serious consequences: nerve signals leak and are not transmitted efficiently causing symptoms such as tremors, blindness and speech problems. Learning how myelin wraps around nerves could help treat sufferers of demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

Written by Georgina Askeland

Georgina Askeland

Writer

A recent graduate from UCL, Georgina is a keen molecular biologist with a passion for creating accessible science. She has a fascination with cell biology– from DNA to viral infection.

• Joseph Corey, University of Michigan, USA
• Jonah Chan, University of California, San Francisco, USA
• Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Methods Copyright 2012
• Published in Nature Methods 9: 917–922