Neuron Generator

These red-stained neurons, located in the brain of a stroke-injured mouse, started life as glial cells – the non-conductive cells of the brain that generally function to surround and support the neurons. A newly devised gene-therapy approach that drives glial expression of Neurod1 – a critical protein for specifying neuronal fate – was responsible for the cell type conversion and, importantly, has been shown to restore both cognitive and motor functions in stroke-injured animals. A stroke, which is defined as an interruption in the blood supply to a part of the brain caused by either a blockage (ischaemic stroke) or a bleed (haemorrhagic stroke), can lead to significant neuronal death in the affected area and with it permanent neurological disability. Thus, if this cell-conversion therapy can be developed for use in humans, it may one day provide a restoration of brain functions otherwise lost for good.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from the Chen Laboratory, Penn State University
• Department of Biology, Huck Institutes of Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Molecular Therapy, September 2019