Targeted treatments for brain injury during early brain development are lacking as the mechanisms underlying neuronal swelling and its outcome are poorly understood. A neonatal mouse brain slice containing the neocortex following excitotoxicity-induced neuronal injury is shown. The slice demonstrates neuronal GCaMP6s (green) and immunolabelling for cleaved-caspase-3 (CC3, marker for cell death, red). This technique revealed that brief excitotoxic insults to the neonatal brain cause rapid transfer of cytosolic GCaMP6s to the nucleus in a subset of neurons, which can lead to neuronal death. See the article by Pratyush Suryavanshi et al. for more details on the mechanism they discovered and information on how nuclear translocation has potential as an early biomarker of brain injury in the developing brain. Cover image: Pratyush Suryavanshi and Joseph Glykys