Newly Discovered Genetic ‘Recipe’ For Lizard Regeneration May One Day Regrow Human Limbs
In the Spider-Man comics by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, Dr. Curt Connors, a scientist who lost his arm during a war, is obsessed with replicating the ability of lizards to regrow lost body parts. He finally cracks the problem, but unfortunately his serum has the side-effect of transforming him into The Lizard, a green, feral reptilian monster that commits crimes and eventually eats Connors’ own son. This week real-life scientists have announced they have also cracked the problem of how lizards regenerate and that the knowledge might be used to regrow human tissue, maybe even limbs. Let’s hope Lee and Ditko were wrong about that whole green monster thing, though. Researchers at Arizona State University studied the genetic makeup of the green anole lizard, which can shed its tail to escape predators and then grow it back. They say they’ve found the genes that are “turned on” by the lizard to allow it to regenerate. “Lizards basically share the same toolbox of genes as humans,” said lead author Kenro Kusumi, professor in ASU’s