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Life Sciences & Medicine Active Updated Aug 13, 2026

The brain's support cells learn to migrate and rebuild after injury

University of Zurich researchers found a population of astrocytes at the edge of brain lesions that migrate newly formed cell nuclei deep into injured tissue to rebuild a working astrocyte network, overturning the assumption that adult brain support cells cannot replace themselves after injury. The stakes are whether this repair mechanism, so far shown only in mice, operates in the human brain and could become a treatment lever for traumatic brain injury and astrocyte-targeting autoimmune diseases like neuromyelitis optica.

The story so far

  1. Aug 13, 2026 Latest

    University of Zurich researchers used two-photon microscopy and long-term gene mapping in mice to show that astrocytes at the edge of a brain lesion send newly formed cell nuclei gliding down their arms into the injured core to rebuild a working astrocyte network, and the team has already flagged the genes that switch on during the migration.

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