Super-resolving neurotransmitter release machinery during priming

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Understanding how neurons communicate in the brain is one of the most challenging feats in neuroscience. The assembly of the molecular machinery involved in communication is unknown. This grant aims to understand how priming molecules Munc18 and Munc13, undergo a series of molecular steps leading to the release of neurotransmitter. Using innovative single-molecule super-resolution imaging we will uncover how Munc18 and Munc13 are spatially and temporally organised to mediate communication. By elucidating how nanoclustering of these essential proteins enables key steps, this grant will reveal how brain cells communicate. This may then provide new opportunities to optimise underlying functions such as cognition, sensory and motor processing.