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Simon receives grant to study limb regeneration
Do mammals have the potential to re-grow arms and legs? A Children’s Memorial Research Center scientist is part of a national study seeking to answer that question.
The partial or complete loss of digits or limbs and deforming disabilities resulting from serious illness can profoundly affect a person’s life. This presents a challenge for the medical community charged with their care.
Recognizing the need for novel approaches that can restore, even partially, the structure and function of lost or damaged tissues, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $3.7 million grant to a consortium of six universities and research centers to unlock the regenerative potential in humans.
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| Salamanders, like the red spotted newt, can regenerate their limbs, tails, spinal cords and jaws. |
Hans-Georg Simon, PhD, a researcher at Children’s Memorial Research Center and assistant professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, heads the Northwestern University arm of the study. The DARPA grant will be administered through the University of Pittsburgh McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
The diverse group of researchers hopes that by working together they will gain a more complete understanding of the cellular and molecular basis that allows certain creatures, such as salamanders, to completely regenerate lost limbs, and be able to harness this capacity in mammals.
If successful and measurable progress is made along the way, DARPA could provide the researchers up to $15 million in funding over four years.
“I don’t think it’s complete fantasy,” says Simon, who studies salamander regeneration at the research center. “The human body has quite remarkable capabilities for repair and regeneration. The problem is that we tend to lose the capacity as we age.”
Most adult mammals, including humans, exhibit only limited regenerative abilities, and following an injury, wounds usually heal over by forming a scar. However, there is evidence for regeneration-like processes during mammalian embryologic development, and there is lifelong self-renewal capability for selected cell populations, such as blood cells, cells that line the walls of the intestine and liver cells.
“There are even reports that the tip of the finger can occasionally be regenerated if the cut is above the last joint,” says Simon.
Many species, including certain salamanders and zebrafish, can regenerate several body parts. The salamander can regenerate its limbs, tail and spinal cord, upper and lower jaws, part of the heart, the lens and retina of the eye and its intestine. The zebrafish will regrow fins, scales, spinal cord and part of the heart.
“Regeneration is the most complete repair mechanism there is.This is still a complicated story, but we have the first inroads now,” says Simon. “I think we’re getting into a very exciting time.”
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