Cytoskeleton: Architecture and movement of cells

The "Cytoskeleton" group of the Max Planck Unit for Structural Molecular Biology in Hamburg focuses on the structure and dynamics of protein fibers in cells, in particular on microtubules and their associated proteins which are responsible for cell movement, cell division, or intracellular transport. One of these proteins, tau, forms pathological aggregates in nerve cells affected by Alzheimer's disease. Recent transgenic cell and mouse models of the tau pathology reveal that the pathological degeneration of synapses and neurons is closely related to aggregation, and that it is reversible.