Overview
- The Neuron paper reports that ultrafast synaptic endocytosis operates in both mouse and human cortical tissue, validating cross-species conservation.
- The team localized Dynamin1xA at synaptic membranes where rapid recycling occurs, implicating the protein in the ultrafast pathway.
- The approach electrically stimulates living tissue and then rapidly freezes it to image millisecond, nanometer-scale membrane dynamics by electron microscopy.
- Human data came from resected cortical samples donated by six epilepsy surgery patients at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
- The NIH-supported study, conducted with Leipzig University collaborators, outlines plans to apply the technique to tissue from patients with Parkinson's disease undergoing deep brain stimulation.