Science

SCIENTISTS: SALAMANDER DNA COULD REGENERATE HUMAN BODY PARTS

For the first time, scientists have completely sequenced the genome of the axolotl, a bizarre salamander that’s capable of regenerating many of its body parts after an injury.

By unlocking the entirety of the axolotl’s genetic code, according to a press release, doctors from the University of Kentucky hope that they may be able to use it in human medicine. By developing new genetic treatments, they hope that someday humans may be able to regenerate missing limbs or reverse other damage, like salamanders do.

“It’s hard to find a body part they can’t regenerate: the limbs, the tail, the spinal cord, the eye, and in some species, the lens, even half of their brain has been shown to regenerate,” Kentucky researcher Randal Voss said in the release.

Sequencing the human genome has become more or less commonplace, but the team needed to come up with new techniques to sequence axolotl DNA, because the critter’s genetic code is ten times longer than a human’s.