The enteric nervous system (ENS) is a sophisticated, autonomous network of neurons and glia embedded within the gastrointestinal tract, critical for regulating motility, secretion, and blood flow. The ...

A team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has discovered that a group of cells located in the skin and other areas of the body, called neural crest stem cells, are the source of ...

For much of the 20th century it was thought that the adult brain was incapable of regeneration. This view has since shifted dramatically and neurogenesis – the birth of new neurons – is now a widely ...

A crucial new mechanism that helps explain how the heart’s major blood vessels form during early development – and how disruptions to this process can lead to serious congenital heart defects – has ...

A mature cell of one type can be turned into a mature cell of another type without the cell having to pass through an earlier stage of development. This is called direct reprogramming, a reliable but ...

Stem cells in the brain, called neural stem cells (NSCs), have the ability to proliferate, differentiate, and undergo a process of cell death. Most of the NSCs in our brains exist in a dormant state, ...

An uninjured (left) and injured adult zebrafish heart with neural crest cells labeled magenta. Note the neural crest cells activated around the edge of the injury in preparation for regenerating the ...

Neural crest cells -- embryonic pluripotent cells within the facial primordium -- may be necessary for forming proper animal facial structures. Researchers have produced neural crest cell-rich ...