All the groups that contribute to this section (Konnerth, Hofmann, Haass, Götz, Grothe) have made seminal discoveries in their respective fields. Their work, often published in the top international journals, has been awarded with numerous scientific prizes. Their current research is internationally highly competitive and likely to make a major impact. For example, the Konnerth group has developed new methodologies of multiphoton imaging of neural networks ‘in vivo’ that are being used now world-wide. These approaches have the potential for making groundbreaking observations on the behaviorally relevant signaling modes of defined cortical neurons in behaving mammals The Hofmann group uses state of the art technology for the development of conditional mouse mutants for the analysis of defined genes for various functions. Several genes (e.g. HCN channels) have been cloned by this group. The effort is to establish the role of these genes for synaptic plasticity. The Haass group is one of the top international groups in Alzheimer research. Haass is not only one of the internationally leading figures in the field dealing with the cellular and molecular aspects of neurodegenerative diseases, but he is also directly involved in the battle for the identification of effective drugs for the treatment of these devastating diseases. The Götz group is one of the internationally highly visible labs working on stem cells. The differentiation of neural stem cells into functional neurons is a key process for any attempt towards functional neuron replacement after acute or chronic injury of the brain. Following up their original discovery, they investigate the role of the transcription factor Pax6 for neurogenesis during development, as well as in adult neural stem cells. The Biel group has cloned and functionally analyzed several ion channels (calcium, CNG and HCN channels). The group uses a multidisciplinary approach including electrophysiology, imaging and state-of-the-art mouse genetics to pinpoint the role of these channels. In its research field the group of Biel belongs to the internationally highly visible labs. Recently, the Grothe group, which is by now one of the prominent labs in auditory neuroscience, challenged the most prominent models in temporal processing on a systems level and replaced it by a new theory. Now they investigate the hypotheses deriving from the new model on a cellular and molecular level. The general relevance is the use of the time processing auditory system as a model-system to experimentally and conceptually bridge the gap from the molecular and cellular level to in-vivo-function and even behavior. Taken together the groups involved in this research area focus on the molecular mechanism of neuronal degeneration, regeneration and plasticity, identifying the role of specific proteins of complex functions in vivo.