Latest news with #AlyssaStone
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Science
- Boston Globe
Northeastern biologists find secret to limb regeneration in the axolotl salamander, a ‘superstar of cuteness'
'We solved that piece of the puzzle, in that we discovered a group of enzymes that break down retinoic acid,' said Monaghan. Advertisement James Monaghan, chair and professor of biology at Northeastern, poses for a portrait on Dec. 12, 2024. Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University Like axolotls, humans also naturally have retinoic acid. Monaghan says the findings could help scientists engineer a similar biological process to one day allow humans to regrow limbs, he said. 'Instead of generating a scar, they will turn on that biological program that made the limb in the first place,' he said. Outside of scientific laboratories, Monaghan said he hopes axolotl fans young and old will see his team's research and learn more about their favorite animal, which last month Advertisement 'I wouldn't have known 22 years ago it would explode in popularity, and now it's become this superstar of cuteness,' he said. Northeastern chair and professor of biology James Monaghan works with axolotls in his lab in the Mugar Life Sciences on Dec. 11, 2024. Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University An axolotl in the Northeastern lab. Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University 'Spiderman' villain The Lizard was inspiration Growing up in the 1980s and '90s in Carmel, Indiana, Monaghan watched Spiderman cartoons every day after school with his little brother. His favorite character was Dr. Connors, a scientist who lost an arm, regrew the limb, and became The Lizard, one of the earliest villains in the series. Those cartoons inspired Monaghan to study limb regeneration, he said. 'Not that I want to be Dr. Connors, but maybe I can be him without the evil part,' Monaghan said, with a laugh. Northeastern chair and professor of biology James Monaghan works with axolotls in his lab in the Mugar Life Sciences on Dec. 11, 2024. Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University Since he was 14 years old, Monaghan has held onto a Spiderman blow-up figurine that's now strung across the ceiling of his lab, which is also home to about 500 axolotls. What are axolotls? In the wild, axolotls are a Culturally, they're a new internet phenomenon, especially popular with children and Gen Z, spawning an axolotl Build-a-Bear toy, a 'The best decision I made in my career is to work on the axolotl,' Monaghan said. 🎤 IT'S NOT JUST A PHASE. IT'S EMO AXOLOTL. Our angsty axolotl just dropped an emo anthem, and trust us—it's way too real. Featuring vocals by comedian and parody artist @Kyle Gordon 💔 This is a limited drop. Once he's gone, he's gone—just like your old BearSpace profile. The animals also make great pets, Monaghan said, although the creatures can grow to over a foot long, he warned. He only works with live axolotls at the lab. Advertisement At his home in the Boston area, Monaghan said, his 5-year-old has about 10 axolotl toys that smile down from bookshelves and bed frames. 'It's pretty surreal to see that it's become such a cultural icon,' he said. Claire Thornton can be reached at
National Geographic
3 days ago
- Health
- National Geographic
Scientists are solving the mystery of how axolotls regrow limbs
A wounded axolotl can regenerate an entire lost leg or only its pinky toe. How the mass of cells that migrate to the wound site, known as a blastema, knows exactly what's needed is a key question the new paper helps answer. 'Evidence suggests it's the access to the appropriate genes after an injury that enable them to regenerate an arm. So they can turn on those programs that built the arm in the first place,' Monaghan says, referring to the gene Shox, which initially creates and then recreates the long bones needed to make an arm or leg. Monaghan also found an enzyme called CYP26B1 reduces the amount of retinoic acid at the site to exactly the level needed for a particular body part. It's the quantity of the retinoid that tells the cells what it is building, the researchers found. So the mass of cells capable of forming an entire arm has more than those making a hand or, at even lower amounts, a finger. In humans as well as other animals, retinoic acid is integral to cell differentiation and growth. Its role in human development is so important that women are urged to avoid the oral acne retinoid medication isotretinoin during pregnancy so as not to interfere with natural levels—although recent research found no increased risk of birth defects or disabilities. Rather than create the retinoic acid, the enzyme assesses current levels and reduces it to the desired amount. This was unexpected, Monaghan says, and crucial to understanding the process humans might one day use to regenerate limbs, too. Advances in gene editing could one day unlock major innovations in medical treatment. Scientists hope they could even figure out how to regrow human limbs. Photograph By Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University Could humans one day regrow missing limbs? Somewhere back in our evolutionary tree, humans and other mammals lost the ability to regrow severed appendages, a trade-off that comes with our more complex, higher-functioning parts. (One exception: newborn babies can regrow fingertips.) Scientists are hopeful these regenerative capacities remain hidden in our biology. If so, 'we can learn to unlock them, potentially restoring greater regenerative potential than we currently see,' says Thomas Rando, director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in this study. Rando believes even the manipulation of human stem cells he and others are studying may benefit from the axolotl research. 'In mammals, we rely on skin stem cells to make skin, bone stem cells to make bone, and muscle stem cells to make muscle,' he says. What isn't known is how to make these cells produce multiple tissues at once, which is necessary to regenerate a functioning limb. Learning how amphibians successfully do this could yield treatments that entice stem cells to mimic those actions. (The ability to reverse damage to your lungs and heart is tantalizingly close.)
