Current and recent research using C. elegans

• Neurodegenerative models.

        C. elegans has been established as an excellent model for the study of neurodegeneration. The organism is simple enough to gain relativly quick results, yet complex enough to serve as an accurate model for disease.

        There is currently a worm model which causes age-dependant degeneration of C.elegans neurons, and it is hoped that commonalities can be found in how neurons respond to stress and misfolded protein aggregation. Developments in this field could possibly find a common mechanism, which could be manipulated to help treat multiple diseases.

• Axon guidance and formation of the nervous system

        Research into axon guidance enables us to create a map of the nervous system and allows us to discover how and why nerve cell travel with such accuracy to theur correct destinations. Previous work with C. elegans has given us an incredible tool due to the entire nervous system having been mapped, and the detailed knowledge of every cell from the embryo to the adult worm.

        Current studies have been focusing on the proteins and signals which attract and/or repel axons to their destination. A recent paper by Maro GS et al has discovered that the Wnt signalling pathway, which also has roles in cell proliferation and cell fate specification, is involved in repelling axons using a beta-catenin dependant pathway.

• Research into causes and effects of addiction

        It has been known since 2006 that the C. elegans worm have a similar nicotine withdrawal response to humans and also shows a similar cellular responses to alcohol at similar concentrations to human cells. This enables C. elegans to be used as a useful model for study into how these drugs affect the body at an acute, and chronic, stage. Our complete knowledge of the neural system of the nematode worm enable researchers to detect differences and deviations from normal development and function.