Susan V. Bryant, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor & Professor

Limb development and regeneration
How to Regenerate a New Leg: What we can learn from salamanders - Alone among vertebrates, urodele amphibians are able to regenerate lost body parts as adults. The key to this ability is that limb cells are triggered to dedifferentiate and reinitiate growth and pattern formation. Our strategy is to use axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) to discover the signals that trigger the regeneration response, in the belief that these signals have enormous potential and consequences for human health. Our long term goals are to identify the regeneration-enabling signals in limbs, in order to support progress towards the eventual application of these molecules to the improvement of human repair mechanisms. In current research, we are using assays derived from the extensive experimental history of regenerating limbs, to test the roles of several signaling molecules known to be essential for limb development ...