A diverse population of microglial cells resides in the brain. Similar to immune cells, microglial cells respond to minute changes in their environment. Sometimes this response is beneficial and other times detrimental. In this episode, Tiffany Garbutt from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Samuel Marsh, a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Beth Stevens at Boston’s Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, about how he uses single cell technology and spatial transcriptomics to better understand the role of microglia in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.