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28 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
make neurons do extra work in case of worms, I touched the worms using an eyelash multiple times and guess what I found: the number of traffic jams in the brain reduced. This clearly indicated that these cargoes stopped along the axon could indeed act as stores of raw materials. Hats off to the neuron!
Take-home summary: First, traffic jams are not always bad for the neuron, rather
they might work in its favour, and, second, mechanisms that resolved these traffic jams might break down in neurodegenerative disorders, resulting in blocked transport and dysfunctional neurons. Our story is, thus, a starting point in understanding and potentially targeting the mechanisms of overcoming or resolving traffic jams that malfunction in diseased neurons.
