At some point in a middle school or high school science class, you probably learned about the regenerative powers of certain animals. Worms cut in half can regenerate parts of their body; some lizards can also regrow lost limbs after a violent event. That leads to one big question: Can those same biological mechanisms be applied to healing human bodies?
In an article for Nature, Smriti Mallapaty reported on the findings of a recent study that looked into repurposing what we know about how certain animals regenerate lost body parts and heal other parts of their bodies. Mallapaty pointed out this doesn’t only apply to growing new limbs. The zebrafish, for instance, is able to heal from serious spinal injuries, something that could have very relevant applications for humans.
The relatively wide net these researchers have cast does come with some drawbacks. University of Southern California biologist Albert Almada told Nature that he thought researching the regenerative abilities of anole lizards would “be more translatable to human biology.” These aren’t the only creatures that researchers are looking to for potential inspiration. Another scientist mentioned in the article is exploring the abilities of a type of marine bristle worm.
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It has a longer history than you might thinkIf this line of scientific inquiry sounds vaguely familiar to you, there might be a reason for that. It is not dissimilar to the origin story of the Spider-Man villain Lizard, who’s been played onscreen twice by the actor Rhys Ifans. Long story short, in the comic books, a scientist named Curt Connors researched how reptiles regenerate lost limbs and wound up turning himself into a terrifying green creature. Presumably the scientists working on this research in the real world will be able to avoid similar outcomes.
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