Astrocyte Ornament

myminifactory

I'm on the hunt for a genuinely realistic model of a neuron or brain cell to use as a Christmas star ornament, but all my searches have come up empty-handed. Deciding to take matters into my own hands, I set out to create my own design based on this stunning confocal microscopy picture of an astrocyte, courtesy of Gerry Shaw. Astrocytes are the star-shaped brain cells we've all heard about, but they're not actually neurons - instead, they're part of a group known as glia. This particular specimen was grown in a tissue culture, which explains its flat shape, although I did take some liberties when simplifying it and adding a bit of plasticity to the cell body that isn't immediately apparent from the photograph.