Nearly all neurological and mental diseases ultimately involve the failure or malfunction of synapses. Understanding synapses will aid us in discovering treatment strategies. The messages are sent in the form of vesicles, which are tiny membranous bags filled with a chemical substance called transmitter. When vesicles empty their transmitter onto cells, ion channels open and cause electrical changes, the basis of neural communication. The release of transmitter occurs through a process called exocytosis.
Synapses allow cells to talk and listen to one another.
In addition to exocytosis, Almers' lab was able to observe how spent vesicles are replaced when new vesicles attach to the cell membrane. Researchers also tracked the amount of time each vesicle stayed attached before it could release transmitter as part of a communication. To conduct this research, scientists at the Vollum Institute used a specially redesigned fluorescence microscope to study retinal neurons in goldfish. The microscope allowed researchers to focus on the surface of the cells, imaging life in a superficial layer, a mere 100 nanometers thin. Researchers used this technology to observe cells as vesicles surfaced, bonded with the cell membrane and were later released.