Post by Paul Tesar

Big news from the Institute for Glial Sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, our team’s work is out today in the journal Cell! We discovered a molecular “brake” that controls when cells finish developing. In oligodendrocytes, the brain cells that make myelin, this timing mechanism is driven by a burst of gene activity that temporarily holds cells back before they mature. In some multiple sclerosis patients, the brake appears to get stuck, potentially contributing to inefficient repair of myelin damage. By releasing it in mice, oligodendrocytes rapidly matured and began to myelinate nearby neurons. We’re now excited to explore whether this timing control system exists in other cell types or diseases and how it might be harnessed for regenerative therapies. This work was led by Kevin Allan, Jesse Zhan, and Tyler Miller, MD, PhD with essential contributions from Andrew Morton, Erin Cohn, Marissa A. Scavuzzo, Anushka Nikhil, Matt Elitt, MD, PhD, Benjamin Clayton, PhD, Lucille H., Elizabeth Shick, Hannah Olsen, Daniel Factor, and Peter Scacheri, Ph.D. (now at Amgen) from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Gemma Bachmann (gemma B.) and Berit Powers from Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Jonathan Henninger (now at Carnegie Mellon University) and Richard Young from Whitehead Institute; and Jost Vrabic and Charles Lin (now at Amgen) from Baylor College of Medicine. Grateful for the support from The National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, sTF5 Care, the Annadata Foundation, and generous philanthropic partners who made this work possible. 📄 Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/ghGEXgZn 📰 Read the news release: https://lnkd.in/gK5gfhEJ