In this article, scientists explain
worm regeneration. The discovery is in a master control gene that is responsible for the regrowth. The worm studied is called the
three-banded panther worm. Dr. Mansi Srivastava from Harvard University says that if you chop the worm in half or thirds, within eight days you will have two or three fully functioning worms with a new brain, mouth and all. This process is known as "full-body regeneration" and the master control gene is
EGR (early growth response). This gene is actually located in a lot of different organisms including humans. But the gene must be activated and is just one small piece of the puzzle. Scientists studied the entire genome of the worm and monitored the opening and closing of DNA throughout. They tracked key points such as brain formation and hypothesized that EGR was responsible. Next, they disabled the genes function on a select group and saw that these worms failed to regenerate.
I found this article to be really interesting. I believe the discovery of this gene could revolutionize the biomedical industry. Obviously, a lot more research must be done but I think EGR gene has a lot of capability and will be seen in a lot more future research.
Three Banded Panther Worm
I like this article because it gives a hope that regeneration for any body part is possible. Even though it is just tested on worms, science is moving so fast that I believe it could happen within the next 20 years.
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