The Miracle of Science

These star shaped cells, or "astrocytes", were once thought to be simple support cells for neurons. They are much more important than this. Now we know that they help maintain the blood-brain barrier and also maintain an environment in the brain that is optimised for electrical and chemical communication.

The shot shows an astrocytes that has been generated from a human stem cell. We can now study these human astrocytes in typical and diseased states since scientists have been able to generate them from human stem cells.