On my desk, brain slices, calcium traces, behavioural diagrams and actigraphy curves were piling up. Right in the middle: a fresh, delightfully demanding paper on astrocytes, those supposedly minor characters of the nervous system. The perfect basis for a new case, I thought: a proper neuro–crime story, built on a recent astrocyte review article in...

While half of London is wondering whether the bin collection will be on time, I, SherlockMS, self-appointed Chief Inspector for Cerebral Affairs, am occupied with a more elegant question: Who actually takes out the brain’s rubbish? 🧠🚮

I refer, of course, to the splendid work “Single-cell spatial transcriptomic profiling defines a pathogenic inflammatory niche in chronic active MS lesions”, a scientific dossier that reads as though the authors had been peering over my shoulder while I inspected the MS-affected brain through my magnifying lens.

Fifty years of monoclonal antibodies. And of course, it’s a criminal case ...

Before anyone says “MS?”, the nervous system is already whispering ...

Metabolism. When you don’t know whom to suspect – it’s almost always metabolism. ⚙️🍽️