To store and process information, the brain is constantly producing, distributing and degrading proteins, the essential cellular resources. Proteins are in high demand, especially at synapses (specialized connections between neurons) which, on average, consume over 100000 trillion proteins per day in the brain. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Max Planck Florida Institute and Goethe University Frankfurt now pictured a tight spatial relationship between the protein production machinery and product in neurons at unprecedented resolution. Their findings imply local sharing of resources: a local ‘neighborhood’ of synapses.