
Understanding the Formation of Nerve Cell Contacts - Volker Haucke receives 2.5 Million Euros of Funding from the European Research Council (ERC)
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© Barth van Rossum
The ability to remember the first kiss is based - like most other functions of our brain - on the communication between nerve cells at specialized contact points called synapses. At synapses, signals are transmitted from one nerve cell to another. During this process, the nerve cell upstream releases messenger substances (neurotransmitters) from vesicles of the presynapse into the cleft between both nerve cells. The messengers proceed to the postsynaptic part of the nerve cell downstream, where they bind to receptors that pass the stimulus on.