Lynn Landmesser (1943–2024): A pioneer in developmental neurobiology

Abstract

Lynn Landmesser, whose studies transformed our view of how neurons find the proper partners on which to form synapses, died at the age of 80 in November 2024. Using elegant electrophysiological methods, she showed that specificity is apparent from the earliest times that connections are established in both autonomic and motor systems. Her work overturned the idea that synaptic connectivity arises by gradual refinement of initially nonspecific patterns and thereby laid the groundwork for molecular analysis of the factors that guide axons to and connect them with their targets.