A functional nervous system depends on the cooperation of many kinds of cells. So as developing organisms build their nervous systems, their neurons must take on different forms and functions to fulfill their designated roles. That carefully orchestrated process gives rise to thousands of different cell types in the human brain. At MIT, scientists in H. Robert Horvitz's lab are studying the worms to learn about how nervous systems develop. Horvitz is the David H. Koch Professor of Biology at MIT, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His team has just discovered that a protein complex called cohesin, which helps shape the three-dimensional structure of the genome in both worms and humans, is critical for establishing some neurons' identities as development unfolds. The open-access findings, reported July 31 in the journal Science Advances, could help scientists find a way to treat a rare...
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