Founded in 1988, GliaNed has grown from a tight-knit community into a collaborative powerhouse of over 300 researchers across 15 Dutch universities and institutes. Spanning a 350-kilometer footprint from Groningen to Maastricht, the network drives seamless national collaboration and protocol exchange. As part of the international Network Glia, GliaNed also works on a global scale to elevate public awareness, advance collaborative breakthroughs, and secure funding for crucial research into glia-related diseases.
On the scientific frontier, GliaNed focuses on unlocking the complex capabilities of glial cells, which make up roughly half of the human brain's 85 billion non-neuronal cells. Once dismissed as mere structural "glue," modern neuroscience has revealed that these highly diverse cells—including astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia—are the primary architects of brain health. Far from passive spectators, they actively maintain the neural environment, direct cell signaling, shape information processing, and protect the nervous system from degeneration and damage.
