MYELINATION AND DYSMYELINATION

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A conference under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences has been planned to bring together investigators studying the cellular and molecular aspects of myelination. The major focus of the meeting will be the myelin mutants since they have provided new insights into the normal developmental process of myelin formation. Within the last five years, the genes for the major myelin proteins have been cloned and sequenced and the genetic basis for several of the myelin mutants has been identified. Modern cellular technologies have helped to identify the sequence of events leading to normal and/or abnormal myelination. It is now possible to trace the pathway from an identified genetic defect to its cellular expression in the nervous system. The intent of this conference is to integrate the information obtained from molecular and cellular studies about myelination into a coherent model, to identify the gaps in our understanding of this process and to plot future directions of research in the are a of myelinogenesis. The last conference devoted to myelinogenesis was held eight years ago and because of the explosive growth in this area, it is now timely to hold such a multidisciplinary meeting.