As usual, it turns out that your mother was right — the group you surround yourself with might just get you into trouble. Last month in the journal Nature Neuroscience, two groups of researchers reported that in the devastating disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) the cells that die, the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, might not be to blame for the disease. Instead, this new research suggests the blame lies with the neurons’ neighbors, cells called astrocytes, which might induce the motor neurons to die… Continue reading Toxic neighbors: Astrocytes Trigger Neuron Death in ALS