The brain of individuals who suffer from epilepsy is characterized by astrogliosis, a brain pathology evidenced by a complex series of changes in the morphology and function of brain cells known as astrocytes. Little is known about how astrogliosis relates to the dysfunction of brain cells known as neurons in individuals with epilepsy, but filling in the blanks in our knowledge could lead to new possibilities for therapeutic intervention. A study using mice by Detlev Boison and colleagues at Legacy Clinical Research, Portland, has now identified the protein ADK in astrocytes as a molecular link between astrogliosis and neuronal dysfunction in epilepsy.