Fig. 1.

Enhancing brain repair and regeneration. Shown are three main aspects how regeneration of adult brain may be achieved in the future. This may become possible by enhancing the activity of endogenous NSCs to generate neurons, for example by using compounds that enhance the formation of new neurons. Further, the ectopic generation of neurons (or glial cells such as myelinating oligodendrocytes) outside the neurogenic niches may be achieved by expression of transcription factors inducing fate changes such as SOX2 and Ascl1. Furthermore, the development of novel cell sources may improve the benefits of studies based on the transplantation of neural cells to replace lost tissue where the aim is to either transplant stem cells or their differentiated progeny to enhance brain repair. For details please refer to the main text.