Molecular mechanisms of slow axonal transport

The neurons of your body can be incredibly long, for example some have their cell body in your spinal cord and send projections, called axons, down to your muscles to make them move. The cell body of a neuron makes the cellular machinery axons need to function, which is then transported to where it's needed. Neurons use proteins that make roads and motors to make this happen: the roads are long filaments called microtubules and the motors, kinesin and dynein, walk in opposite directions along them to transport cargo. Some of these transport processes can take many months to reach their final destination, and in neurodegenerative diseases this system of transport can break down entirely. By looking at single molecules of motors behaving within neurons, I aim to understand how this system is regulated, how these processes affect the age of cargo, and develop new approaches to treat neurodegenerative disease.