A major interest of the Research group for Molecular Cell Biology is the analysis of pathomechanisms leading to motoneuron cell death or axonal degeneration. In the past years the research focus has been on the different signalling cascades that are potentially involved in these mechanisms. During this work, key regulator proteins in the mechanisms of motoneuron survival have been identified and new insights into protein-protein interactions have been described. Especially the intracellular signalling cascades for the Ras/Raf/MAPK and the PI3K/Akt are of great interest. The group has great expertise in the culture systems of embryonic mouse motoneurons, sensory neurons, astrocytes and neural stem cells from embryonic forebrain and spinal cord as well as in the culture of several cell lines as models for neuron and glia differentiation. Motoneuron cultures have also been performed from different species including chick and rat. Intensive studies have been performed on the survival and cell death of cultured motoneurons and sensory neurons in chicken and various mouse mutants to define the role of the different proteins in the concert of survival and cell death signalling for motoneurons. Additionally the group performed analyses of neural stem cells in the context of the role of the Extracellular matrix. Here the role of Tenascin-c and modulation of sulfation and glycosaminoglycan chains in the context of proliferation and differentiation of spinal cord neural stem cells has been investigated.