In Europe alone, autoimmune diseases that may target any body organ affect about 7% of the population.

Embryonic or neural stem cells are key tools for future studies on Parkinson’s disease or other degenerative diseases. So far, the only way to obtain embryonic stem cells implied the destruction of an embryo.

Spinal cord injuries cause myelopathy or damage to white matter or myelinated fiber tracts that carry signals to and from the brain. It also damages gray matter in the central part of the spine, causing segmental losses of interneurons and motorneurons.

Reconstructing the neuronal circuitry of a damaged spine looks like a much closer goal now.

He made sense of something Darwin was at pains to speculate about, but couldn’t quite argue persuasively.

We don’t really seem to know all that much about the organ we all come from.

For a neurodegenerative disease that strikes later in life with neuronal dysfunction and subsequent cell death by showing a mind-boggling heterogeneity of subtypes, spinocerebellar ataxia had not been adequately tackled for a long time.

Claudia Castillo’s brand new, tailor-made windpipe, which European scientists created last year by lining the cartilage of a donated trachea with her own stem cells, has been heralding a new “cells into organs” era.

The main thing about reaching a ripe old age seems to be about cracking the nut of those diseases affecting organ systems deriving substantially or exclusively from mesodermal cells, such as heart, vascular system, blood, kidneys, skeleton and musculature.

Since his seminal 1994 discovery of the Pax-6 gene as the universal master switch of eye formation, Professor Walter Gehring had to prove his point by expressing the mouse gene on the wings and legs of the fruit fly.

Unlocking the mystery of that 5% of sudden cardiac deaths which are not caused by any apparent anatomic abnormality points to a group of inherited gene mutations in the heart’s ion channels.

Bacteria and other microorganisms that cause infections are remarkably resilient and can develop ways to survive drugs meant to kill or weaken them.

A new revolutionary method has been developed by a European consortium of scientists to improve diagnosis of lung cancer, with clinical study centers in Innsbruck and Rostock.

“We need our own kind of Kyoto treaty for antibiotics: the point is, we should treat antibiotics as a non-renewable source”, says professor Antonio Cassone, research director of the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità.

Sun is bad for our skin. Even if we are aware of this, it is hard to resist wanting a suntan. For this reason, melanoma occurrences have been rising steadily in Europe since 1930.

A new range of garments will soon be out. Gucci? Prada? - Not this time. The emphasis here is not fashion but prevention of chronic disease.

A microchip placed in the mouth can improve the life of people that suffer from Xerostomia, a condition that affects saliva production in the mouth.

Now in a test phase at the Université Libre in Brussels, new ‘VAKHUM’ software can create 3-D models of the human body. The system will soon be applied for treatment in orthopaedic wards.

For every physician and patient, reduction of medical error is a priority issue. 10% of diagnoses and prescriptions are estimated to be flawed.

Cancer has turned my life upside down . It touched my body, my deepest identity. I started questioning myself about the meaning of life, about death, about what it means to have a changing body that would soon undergo major therapies and go through early menopause.