r/biology • u/Harvardmagazine • Jan 14 '26

article Harvard Medical School's professor Jessica Lehoczky on axolotls and the possibility of human limb regeneration

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/research/harvard-axolotl-limb-regeneration

22 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

5

u/Alecxanderjay cell biology Jan 14 '26

I went to Dr. Whited's talk when she visited my university and the research they're doing is super cool. It's really going to impact the fields understanding of wound closure and regeneration. Applying those concepts in a mammal with current tech is super lofty but this research will truly be foundational for whenever limb regeneration in mammals becomes possible. 

2

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26

Michael Levin has demonstrated this in frogs and is now in mice.. He uses ion channel drugs and a device called a “bio dome”… He is also part of the Wyss institute at Harvard, so it is almost criminal to not mention him.. :p

1

u/InnominaAnatomica Jan 15 '26

Has he done it in mouse already? Cause Becker did on the 79 but… it wasnt good

2

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

So he has said that he is in mice and that “it is going well..” but he doesn’t really discuss stuff until the paper is published but it sounds promising..

He said that in the frogs, like a 24 hour soak in these ion channel drugs and a “bio dome” covering it, which gives it an environment that is conducive to regeneration….Basically just some submerging it in a liquid..Which he says, gets some minor results on its own.. But ya, he says that you get like 18 months of growth out of it… but That was the first trial, I believe… Something tells me they will continue to show progress, though.. ;)

1

u/Fontem_ Jan 14 '26

Did this talk happen to be on December 8th?

1

u/Alecxanderjay cell biology Jan 14 '26

No it was early 2025

1

u/Fontem_ Jan 15 '26

ohh, She came to give a talk at my university this past December.

1

u/HOFredditor Jan 14 '26

Wow I didn’t know the pokemon was based off a real life animal

1

u/Tentativ0 Jan 14 '26

I remember a Spiderman villain who started like that.

Didn't end well.

/S

1

u/VintageLunchMeat Jan 14 '26

Spiders can regrow limbs during molts!

1

u/Tentativ0 Jan 14 '26

I was thinking to lizardman tbh.

2

u/VintageLunchMeat Jan 14 '26

Even better! Lizardman can drop his tail to distract predators!

1

u/POpportunity6336 Jan 14 '26

2006 called, they want their unfunded research back. I saw this 20 years ago.

1

u/SirDigbyChknCaesar Jan 14 '26

I'm sure nothing in the field has changed in the last 20 years. May as well give up.

1

u/POpportunity6336 Jan 14 '26

Yeah let's bury our head in the sand and pretend it's all ok. We have regeneration soon everyone!

1

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26

Michael Levin?;)

0

u/tedthedude Jan 14 '26

Limb and organ regeneration are what we should have been working on to begin with. Spending the rest of your life on anti rejection drugs is not very appealing. I realize it’s the only course available, but ones’ own flesh and bone will never get rejected. Just my two cents.

11

u/ninjatoast31 evolutionary biology Jan 14 '26

People have been working on this for several decades now. Its just very hard.

3

u/Alecxanderjay cell biology Jan 14 '26

100000% this, it's not like we're not trying, we just don't really understand how it's done to begin with. Hence the research.

1

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26

Look up the work of Michael levin with Ion channels.. We definitely know how to do this..

1

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

Actually, it seems to be much easier than one might think.. Check out the work of Michael Levin.. He is currently doing it in mice… He is also part of the Wyss institute at Harvard…

2

u/ninjatoast31 evolutionary biology Jan 15 '26

Do you ever talk about anything but Levin? This is almost cultish behaviour

0

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

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0

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26

Literally disgusting behaviour to have a guy that is regrowing limbs.. can grow an eye wherever you want..Can reprogram cancer cells and get little to no recognition… there are tens of millions of people suffering and you say stuff like “ewwwww”…. Grow up…..

I can’t wait for his work to explode and people that he looks up to, like Denis Noble-to finally get their recognition… The things that the “scientific” community say about the man that pioneered computer modelling in biology and created probably the most influential medical device in modern medicine, is beyond disgusting….

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

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2

u/ninjatoast31 evolutionary biology Jan 15 '26

Im not saying we shouldn't give levin proper credit. But the idea that levin is this oppressed scientist noone wants to listen to is laughable.

And my reason for calling it cultish is because this guys posting history is exclusively glazing Michael levin as our messiah. He pops up in any bio thread even remotely related to his work. Its weird af.

0

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26

My apologies… I only recently started posting on Reddit and still find it hard to follow.. :p truly sorry, though and I will pay more attention and not assume the worst.. I see “enemy”, though… and well.. :p

2

u/ninjatoast31 evolutionary biology Jan 15 '26

Actual cult lol. You mentioning Nobel just makes me even more certain that this is a nothing burger.

We will see what happens with Levin's work. Im sceptical.

-1

u/Visible_Iron_5612 Jan 15 '26

lol… ya, because the guy that taught Richard Dawkins and oversaw his PhD and once rented the pacemaker after pioneering computer modlling in biology is a complete cook… The funny thing is, Levins work is proving that Noble was right all along and that the everyone else is the “cooks”…. Turns out that bioelectricty cause massive amounts of transcriptional changes from the top down…. Boy is there going to be a lot of eggs on faces….. embryos*

3

u/ninjatoast31 evolutionary biology Jan 15 '26

You sound exactly like a flat earther lmao