Journeys of discovery: How brains wire-up
- 18 October 2023
- 2 minutes
knew she had solved one of the key puzzles of how brains wire-up, but convincing others was no easy matter.
The 91快播 Fellow continued to believe in what the science was telling her and steadily pieced together the remarkable story of how nerve cells navigate to exactly the right place in the developing brain. for her ground-breaking discoveries and the impact these will have on health and disease.
鈥淭he brain is made up of billions of nerve cells, or neurons, wired together in a highly complex and organised way,鈥 Christine says.
鈥淎 single neuron can send out an axon 鈥 a tiny electrically active cable 鈥 that can be over a metre in length in an adult human. From there it can make stunningly accurate connections with other neurons, and function for more than 80 years.
鈥淚t's a formidable feat of cellular navigation and longevity. I鈥檝e spent most of my adult life questioning how this happens.鈥
Christine remembers the moment when she first saw evidence that proved her ideas were right.
She adds: 鈥淥h my goodness, I thought, we鈥檝e just opened up a whole lot of new biology here. It鈥檚 like the oyster diver. Finally, you find the oyster with the pearl in it.鈥
Photo credit: Jacqueline Garget/University of Cambridge
A video about Christine Holt
This film is a personal portrait of the three Brain Prize 2023 winners. It describes their upbringing, role models and their motivations for becoming neuroscientists.
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