Tau protein
Tau proteins (or τ proteins, after the Greek letter by that name) are proteins that stabilize microtubules. They are abundant in neurons of the central nervous system and are less common elsewhere, but are also expressed at very low levels in CNS astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.
The tau proteins are the product of alternative splicing from a single gene that in humans is designated MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau) and is located on chromosome 17.
They were discovered in 1975 in Marc Kirschner's laboratory at Princeton University.
Pathologies and dementias of the nervous system such as Alzheimer disease can result when tau proteins become defective and no longer stabilize microtubules properly.
see Tauopathy.