Astrocyte Insights

Astrocytes are brain cells with multi-function – including communicating with, nourishing and maintaining neurons – with many secrets still to be disclosed. How they interact with different cell types and with neuronal synapses (the points of signal transmission from neuron-to-neuron) has been uncovered here using volume electron microscopy and 3D reconstruction with auto-segmentation (highlighting different specific structures with a common label) revealing previously unknown features at nanoscale. Astrocytes are represented here in pink, in association with nerve fibres in yellow, blue, and green

Read the published research article here

Written by Lindsey Goff

Lindsey Goff

Editor-in-Chief

Formerly immunologist for Cancer Research UK, Lindsey has since moved into the field of scientific publishing. She looks after all BPoD editorial matters.

• Video from work by Albert Hiu Ka Fok (霍曉稼), Yanan Wang & Megan Ng, and colleagues
• Centre for Research in Neuroscience, Dept of Neurology & Neurosurgery, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre; School of Computer Science and Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Cell Reports, August 2026