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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		How copper helps neurons communicate
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:00
	Publish Date:		2016-08-31 19:00:00
	Description:		Compared to the rest of the body, the brain has higher levels of mineral nutrients like copper, zinc, and iron. This observation led chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley to probe down to the level of the neurons, where he found copper was mediating conversations between cells. "So we ended up studying the interface between metals and neuroscience for a while, and the thing that we ended up finding was that copper is important for having brain cells communicate with each other normally." Chang discovered that copper can essentially turn off signals between cells. "The idea is that when two brain cells talk to each other and store and transfer information, there’s a movement of copper that occurs between the cells. And so if two cells talk to each other, the copper moves to tell the cells that the signal now can be sort of turned off. So you’re almost, like telling them to hang up the telephone." This was the first study directly observing the communication role of copper in the brain.
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