In rat hippocampal neurons, cytoplasmic TDP-43 resides within RNA granules that travel to dendritic arbors upon depolarization (Wang et al. 2008a); however, ALS-associated mutant forms of TDP-43 (A315T and Q343R) severely reduced the movement of the granules to dendrites (Liu-Yesucevitz et al. 2014; Alami et al. 2014), likely preventing the transport and therefore local translation of mRNAs encoding proteins that are required for proper synaptic function. Here, TARDBP is linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.