For decades, scientists assumed that neural stem cells (NSCs) only occur in the brain and spinal cord. A new international study, led by Hans Schöler of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, has now refuted this assumption and discovered a new type of neural stem cell outside the central nervous system (CNS) that opens up enormous possibilities for the development of therapies for neurological diseases. The study is published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.