Very happy to share our new review 🎉 Fantastic work led by
@alanzhoujf.bsky.social 👏 Astrocyte heterogeneity is a key feature of brain development🧠, we discuss where it comes from, what it means functionally, and its potential implications for brain disorders🔗 www.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
5/ ⭐️ This study reshapes our understanding of how astrocyte diversity emerges during cortical development.
6/ 🧭 Want to explore the data yourself? Check out our interactive site where you can browse gene expression, subtype markers, lineage relationships, and spatial maps: 🌐 bocchilab.ch/Zhou_et_al_2...
Huge shoutout to first author @alanzhoujf.bsky.social 🙌 and all our fantastic collaborators — couldn’t have done it without such an amazing team work! 💥🧠 Thanks to the funding support from
@snsf.ch #Ambizione
Thrilled to shared our new preprint with @djabaudon.bsky.social ! Led by Ilaria Morassut, we explored "the extent to which early brain maturation requires interactions with the outside world". This wouldn't have been possible without our incredible collaborators, specially the @lanevol.bsky.social 🧵
1/ Not all astrocytes are created equal.
We mapped the molecular and spatial landscape of astrocytes in the mouse neocortex — and found five distinct subtypes, organized across cortical layers and white matter.
2/ Here is the twist 🧬.
Using high-throughput clonal tracing (TrackerSeq), we discovered that these subtypes originate from two molecularly distinct radial glia lineages.
4/ Why does this matter?
Because astrocyte origin shapes astrocyte function.
Olig2-lineage astrocytes are synaptogenic — they promote synapse formation.
Knock out Olig2, and synaptic density drops.