Intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) is a devastating neurological disease affecting annually millions of people. It has a high mortality rate, while survivors are affected long-term by neurological deficits. There is no medication to support brain recovery following ICH. In this international collaboration, BrainRepair laboratory researchers together with their Taiwanese colleagues investigated whether cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF) protein has potential as a treatment for ICH. The authors found that administration of recombinant human CDNF accelerates haemorrhagic lesion resolution, reduces peri-focal edema, and improves neurological outcomes in an animal model of ICH. Surprisingly, they found that CDNF acts on microglia/macrophages in the haemorrhagic brain, in which cells it increases anti-inflammatory mediators and suppresses production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, in microglia/macrophages, CDNF promotes scavenger receptor expression, which in turn enhances erythrophagocytosis. Administration of rhCDNF also resulted in alleviation of oxidative stress and unfolded protein responses in the perihematomal area. Finally, the researchers demonstrated that systemic administration of CDNF promotes scavenging by the brain’s myeloid cells for the treatment of ICH and has beneficial effects in an animal model of ICH. These results suggest that CDNF, a protein being currently tested for Parkinson’s disease, also has therapeutic and immunomodulatory effects in ICH.