When the brain suffers injury or infection, glial cells surrounding the affected site act to preserve the brain’s sensitive nerve cells and prevent excessive damage. A team of researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have been able to demonstrate the important role played by the reorganization of the structural and membrane elements of glial cells. The researchers’ findings, which have been published in Nature Communications*, shed light on a new neuroprotective mechanism which the brain could use to actively control damage following neurological injury or disease.