The vertebrate central nervous system (CNS) consists of the brain and spinal cord. It integrates and processes the signals from the peripheral nervous system and controls body activity (e.g., movements). The retina, the optic nerve, the olfactory epithelium, and the olfactory nerve also belong to the CNS. Following traumatic injury, mature neurons of the CNS are unable to regenerate.
The reasons for this limited regeneration ability are, on the one hand, the ineffective intrinsic capability of neurons to start a regenerative growth program, and on the other, the inhibitory extracellular environment that is regenerating axons have to cross in the injured CNS to reach their target. Consequently, injuries of the CNS usually cause irreversible loss of function, such as paralysis after a spinal cord injury or blindness after the damage of the optical nerve.
Our research aims are to study the underlying mechanisms of this limited capacity of regeneration and the manipulation of these mechanisms in a way that the regeneration of axons in the CNS becomes possible.
