It has been a banner year in Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (NCL) research. Clinician scientists and investigators have traveled the globe presenting their findings at scientific meetings and invitation-only conferences, and have published over 70 scientific peer-reviewed articles reporting new research in the 9 forms of NCL and its 10 causal genes.  In this paper, Danielle Kerkovich, Prinicipal Scientist with the Beyond Batten Foundation, presents a brief overview of some of the scientific clues discovered in 2011