SFB 665: Developmental Disturbances in the Nervous System (Collaborative Research Project)

Advances in genetics and molecular biology in the past two decades have made it possible to analyze the molecules that control nervous system development and to identify genetic alterations that result in a disturbance of this process. However, the mechanisms and molecules that establish and maintain neuronal circuits are still not completely understood. For basic and clinical neuroscientists, the present challenge can be framed by the following questions. How can we best integrate genetic, cellular and biochemical data to understand genes and their functions on a mechanistic level? How can the understanding of developmental disturbances in patients benefit from the knowledge of molecular mechanisms gained from animal models? How can the knowledge of phenotypes observed in humans, where higher order complexity can be addressed, inform the analysis of gene function in animals? We take up this challenge by joining the efforts of investigators who use genetic analyses in animal models to study nervous system development, researchers who assess nervous system functions on a cellular, biochemical or physiological level, and clinicians who identify the genetic causes of developmental disturbances in their patients. Our initiative is organized along two fundamental themes in contemporary developmental neuroscience, the mechanisms underlying pattern formation and cell specification (in project area A), and neural connectivity and signaling (in project area B). To bundle these lines of research will, in the short term, allow the members of the SFB to benefit from the know-how and technologies of the other disciplines in their analysis of gene functions. In the long term, we hope to achieve a better understanding of the causal relationship between mutation and neurological phenotypes, thereby providing a basis for future improvements in therapeutic strategies.