Stem cells allow unforeseen insights into Parkinson's Disease and thereby new approaches for drug development

Scientists around Hans Schöler of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster and Thomas Gasser of the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research in Tübingen have used induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells of Parkinson patients to develop a "disease model in a dish". By this means, they have discovered causes for the neurodegeneration that accompanies this disease. The findings were published in the renowned scientific journal Cell Stem Cell.