Dr. Jared Sterneckert, group manager in the Prof. Dr. Hans Schöler´s department at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and its staff member, Susanne Höing, have used stem cells to develope an innovative test method with which the pathological processes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can be mimicked in a petri dish. Among tens of thousands of chemical compounds, they determined the substances which are able to protect the motor neurons affected by ALS.

These results which has been currently published in "Cell Stem Cell" are doubly important: First the test procedure with stem cells opens new pathways in drug discovery, on the other hand the detected substances could have an protecting effect in many neurodegenerative diseases. For the first time, by use of stem cells the researchers can provide motoneurons for pharmaceutical research in large quantities.

Further information (in German): http://campus.uni-muenster.de/