Our group study the way cells interact with each others and with the extracellular matrix to differentiate into complex tissues with proper shape and polarity. We apply these biological questions to the development of the peripheral nervous system, with the final goal to translate basic findings on normal development into treatment for those inherited neuromuscular diseases where these interactions fail. For example proteins important for cell adhesion are missing in certain demyelinating hereditary neuropathies (Charcot-Marie-Tooth diseases) or in neuropathies that accompany congenital muscular dystrophies. In these diseases myelin, a multilamellar structure required for normal conduction of nerve impulses, is either not formed correctly or disrupted. By understanding the mechanism by which the missing adhesion molecules normally promote myelination, we wish to find strategies to improve myelination in these diseases.