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| 11/30/2009 - 10:00am |
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| 12/3/2009 - 12:00pm |
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| 12/4/2009 - 11:00am |
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BCM Neuroscience in the News
Discovery of Merkel Cell Function published in Science by BCM Neuroscience Graduate Students and Faculty Member
Two graduate students in the Department of Neuroscience, Mr. Scott Wellnitz and Ms. Aislyn Nelson, working with Dr. Ellen Lumpkin, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, published a paper in the journal, Science on June 19, 2009 entitled, “Merkel cells are essential for light touch responses.” This work represents a significant new finding that resolves our understanding of a curious cell type in the skin (the Merkel cell) whose exact contribution to our sense of touch has eluded neuroscientists’ studies for a century. Working in collaboration with the research teams of another BCM faculty member, Dr. Huda Zoghbi who is a Professor of Neurology, of Pediatrics, of Human and Molecular Genetics and of Neuroscience and a group from the University of Virginia, Dr. Lumpkin and her graduate students have now determined that these mysterious cells are essential to the nervous system transmitting information about light touch from the skin through the spinal cord and on to the brain. The investigators developed a laboratory mouse that has a certain gene transcription factor lacking from cells in the skin and along the animals’ footpads, enabling them to discover that the electrical signature characteristic of the detection of touch that is transmitted along the nerves from the skin’s surface is missing in these animals. This experiment demonstrates the necessity for the Merkel cells for processing this type of information from the body’s surface. This work provides the first direct evidence for the specific role of this poorly understood cellular element on the body’s surface in contributing to an organism’s capacity for resolving the fine details of objects and surfaces with which our skin comes into contact. This work represents a fundamental step forward in establishing the biological substrate of an important sensory modality – that of somatosensation, particularly light touch.
Ellen A. Lumpkin, Ph.D. |
Huda Y. Zoghbi, M.D. |
Aislyn Nelson |
Scott Wellnitz |
The Science article can be viewed and downloaded at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/324/5934/1580.pdf
A podcast interview about the article can be viewed at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/324/5934/1580/DC2
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