DNM1L and Encephalopathy: While much research has focused on the disruption of excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance and neuronal pathogenesis of encephalopathy due to defective mitochondrial and peroxisomal fission-1 (Casillas-Espinosa et al., 2012; Ke et al., 2023), our results reveal how Drp1 dysfunction in astrocytes alone can fundamentally disrupt cortical development through astrocyte morphogenesis and organization deficits.