Author: Albert HiuKa Fok, Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuroscience, McGill University

Astrocytes — named for their star-like shape — are a type of brain cell as abundant as neurons in the central nervous system, but little is known about their role in brain health and disease. Many neurological diseases are caused by or result in the loss of cells in the central nervous system. Some diseases are a result of the loss of specific cells, such as the loss of motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the loss of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson’s disease and the loss of GABAergic neurons in Huntington’s disease. For other neurodegenerative conditions, like Alzheimer’s disease,…