Have you ever heard of glial cells? They make up about half of the cells in your brain.

The role of glia has kind of undergone a renaissance of some sort in the last decades.

It's Monday, April 15th, and we're keeping our brain cells firing because this is Science Friday. I'm Sci-Fi producer Shishana Bucksbaum. When scientists first discovered Gleea

over a century ago, they thought that they simply held the neurons together.

Their name derives from a Greek word that means glue. But in the past decade or so,

researchers have come to understand that Gleeial cells do so much more.

They communicate with neurons and work closely with the immune system, and they even play an

important role in regulating our guts. Here's Ira Fleto with more.

Joining me now to give us a crash course in Gleele cells is my guest. Yasmin

the Sappliculu, staff writer at Quantum Magazine, she's based in New York City.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Hi, thanks for having me.

So nice to have you.

Okay, for all of us, can you give us a sort of glial cell 101, please?

Yes, I'd love to.

So when we think about the brain, we typically think neurons, and that makes total sense, right?

Neurons are truly the stars of the nervous system.

They fire signals, basically helping us navigate our internal and external worlds,

like my thoughts, my dreams, you know, my ramblings, they're all created by neurons.

They're glamorous cells.

But like you said, about half of the central nervous system, which is the brain and

the spinal cord, is actually made up of other types of cells called Gleea.

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