Post by Carmen Falcone

I am so happy to see the very first work of our lab finally published at #ScienceAdvances!!! We showed that varicose projection #astrocytes are NOT hominoid-specific (we found them in mice… and tigers!!) and that - rather than being a physiological type of astrocyte - they are linked to #neuropathology and aging. https://lnkd.in/eaUiyscW This study was possible thanks to the incredible efforts of past and present members of the #FalconeLab (shoutout to the first author Caterina Ciani, to previous lab members Giulio Pistorio, Marika Mearelli, Simona Giancola, Luca mio, Francesca Emma Mongelli, Delaram Forouzeh 👏 , and all the current lab members at Towson University that helped with the revision and with pushing the paper to the finish line Kyle Hastings, Elena Christou, Anh Quynh Do 💪 ). Huge thanks to all of the international collaborators, your support was fundamental, and I feel incredibly honored to have worked with you all, special thanks to Francesco Paolo Ulloa Severino, Mootaz Salman, Carmen Muñoz Ballester, fabio cavaliere, Urtė Neniškytė, Francesco Petrelli, Nunzio Iraci, Jean-Marie Graïc, Mandi Lichtenstein, Carlos Matute Almau, Luana Campos Soares, Marta Gonzalez Martin, and, last but not the least, Alexei Verkhratsky, who believed in us and supported this story since the very beginning. This is also a story about how unpredictable science can be. When I first became intrigued by varicose projection astrocytes, I was still a postdoc, and it all started with an evolutionary question. Never would I have thought this story would take us from evolution to disease. For me, this is an example of why basic science matters so much. Sometimes, following your gut and asking unconventional research questions really does pay off. Read more here 👇 👇 👇 Happy to chat about this more!!! Towson University Fisher College of Science & Mathematics #FalconeLab #ProudPI #astrocytes #evolution #reactiveastrocytes #neuropathology #neurodegenerativediseases