Can Molecular Gradients Wire the Brain?

Opinion Can Molecular Gradients Wire the Brain?

Concentration gradients are believed to play a key role in guiding axons to their appropriate targets during neural development. However, there are fundamental physical constraints on gradient detection, and these strongly limit the fidelity with which axons can respond to gradient cues. I discuss these constraints and argue they suggest that many axon guidance events in vivo cannot be explaine...

First Princiles Study of the Electron Transport Properties of Buthane-dithiol Nano-Molecular Wire

We report a first-principles study of electrical transport in a single molecular conductor consisting of a buthane-dithiol sandwiched between two Au (100) electrodes. We show that the current was increased by increasing of the external voltage biases. The projected density of states (PDOS) and transmission coefficients (T(E)) under various external voltage biases are analyzed, and it suggests t...

Immunosignaturing Can Detect Products from Molecular Markers in Brain Cancer

Immunosignaturing shows promise as a general approach to diagnosis. It has been shown to detect immunological signs of infection early during the course of disease and to distinguish Alzheimer's disease from healthy controls. Here we test whether immunosignatures correspond to clinical classifications of disease using samples from people with brain tumors. Blood samples from patients undergoing...

How do you wire a brain?

Cerebral cortex is generally thought to provide the neural basis for higher cognitive and perceptual functions (see Gazzaniga et al., 2008). In cerebral cortex, billions of individual neurons, the functional units of cortex, are interconnected via a massive yet highly organized network of axonal and dendritic wiring. This wiring enables both near and distant neurons to coordinate their response...

Actin: A molecular wire, an electrical cable?