Young scientists on their own feet

„Cells in Motion“ pilot project at Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and Institute for Neuropathology granted

Learning to stand on your own feet is not easy for your scientists. All the more delighted are PhD students Michael Glatza and Lydia Wagner of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Molecular Biomedicine and Marc Ehrlich of the Institute for Neuropathology of the Medical Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms-University Münster that their interdisciplinary project proposal for the pilot projects of the Cluster of Excellence "Cells in Motion" was granted for one year with €20,000. The cooperation of the young scientists will start on November 1st, 2015. The aim of the project is to use stem cells to make mini-brains in which the scientists can investigate how processes of neurons are wrapped with a protective sheath. In diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but also in Parkinson's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) und Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), this so-called myelin sheath is destroyed, leading to a disturbed nerve conduction.