How can a man have a baseball-sized hole in his ear?

The big questions are the age to which these mice are living, how this ability interhaces with cancerous growths, and whether or not this affects the telomere tails of genes, how this plays into aging and degenerative diseases.

Oh yeah, and I'm willing to bet there will be a fat, fat DARPA grant in these folks' future.

Holy Man on an Implement of Vertical Oscillation!

Think of the implications this could have for anti-aging therapy!

I guess regeneration is good news. However, if I were a mouse I would prefer that some asshole not chop off my limbs in the first place.

You thinking about having something cut off, Ace?

You know, I read stuff like this about every two weeks it seems. Not the same story, just researchers somewhere doing something so mindblowing, the only way to deal with it is to pretend it’s Sci-Fi or that i didn't read it.

It does seem like there's something like this every few weeks, probably because there is something like this every few weeks. I linked a very similar story on Sept. 2nd, but a totally different group of scientist.

You thinking about having something cut off, Ace?

Oops! You thinking about having something cut off, Doc?

Can they regrow Ted Kennedy a new brain? This one seems defective...

Uh... isn't anyone else worried that this won't lead to people being able to regenerate limbs and organs, but instead to us being overrun by a race of supermice?

I think a traditional Victor Mk1 rev 0 mousetrap would be able to deal even with a "supermouse".

Heck I cought a rat in one of those traps a few years ago - he nibbled at just the right angle and it snapped his neck cleanly.

The original Victor trap is a truly amazing device. I have full confidence in its ability to deal with all current and future mice.

The trick is to forget about the old "mice like cheese thing" -- that's a crock of shit. Mice are hopeless genetic suckers for peanut butter. They simply can't resist it. Kinda like Ted Kennedy and Chivas or Crown Royal - one whiff and they're done.

If I can grow a new liver, I'll continue to abuse the one I have.

The only problem I see with such discoveries is that reporting them in the news like this does so much to get the hopes of people up. And yet 1) there is absolutely NO guarantee that this could transfer to humans (these are genetically altered mice . . . you think people will stand for genetically altering their children?); 2) even if this does work on humans, it could be decades before such a therapy went from mouse testing to human testing and passed FDA approval.

I mean, really, for every discovery like this that you actually hear about, there's probably 15 happening at Universities around the world that you don't hear about. It just takes so freaking long for stuff to leave a laboratory and actually make it to the market.

I wonder if ALF will be bombing this place?

Oh yeah, and I'm willing to bet there will be a fat, fat DARPA grant in these folks' future.

DARPA is in fact working on a project to do exactly this, with the goal of regrowing limbs blown off in combat.

Can you say, continual supply of kidneys to donate?

Wayne Bobbitt could have used this technology.

Yeah - the key question here is, does the regrown "limb" turn out exactly the same as the old one, or could it be, you know, a different size, maybe, just for the sake of argument, bigger?

What happens after you have surgery though. I mean, lets say you have your appendix removed. Does it grow back?

I remember reading back in high school that scientists had already figured out that salamanders and the like maintain a bioelectric field that includes even chopped off limbs. For example, if they snap off their tail to distract a predator (they do this often), you can still see a 'phantom' tail when you put the little fella on a photosensitive dish. They even had a picture of it in National Geographic, which means it's totally true.

But seriously, I always figured that to properly grow a limb back you'd have to have some kind of electrochemical 'blueprint' to teach the cells to grow in the proper direction, a kind of electrical lattice for them to follow.

So anyway, that is truly neat, but the tumor thing is something I'd be worried about too.

It's naht a tooomuh!

Cool! Regeneration! Now I just need the big, retractable metal claws to go with it, and I'm THERE!

I'm investing in that little medical shop around the corner that specializes in circumcisions.

What happens after you have surgery though. I mean, lets say you have your appendix removed. Does it grow back?

Well, the original mice have their DNA modified, permanent. The other mice have some of the DNA injected into their bodies, giving them regeneration effects. In certain gene therapy vector design, a variation of the second method would be a controlled, transient exposure to the effect of the gene therapy; it would wear off.

I guess regeneration is good news. However, if I were a mouse I would prefer that some asshole not chop off my limbs in the first place.

Hey, the Garden of Eden called, they want their apple back.

Yeah - the key question here is, does the regrown "limb" turn out exactly the same as the old one, or could it be, you know, a different size, maybe, just for the sake of argument, bigger?

Yeah, I want bigger AND prehensile! Just think of the "kitchee kitchee koo!" you could deliver at the right moment!

Mice are already the most intelligent beings on the planet.

42!!! 42!!!

Fox - Actually, it's all signal gradients. The cells of a salamander's amputated limb dedifferentiate into a blastema (like a bastula - stem cells basically), brought on by a layer of epidermis that grows over the wound within 24 hours. But if you sew it up - it stops (and if you split the stump, you get two limbs). The blastema becomes the control center for regrowth.

Then all the signalling factors that were responsible for the embryonic blueprint (FGF's, Hox genes) are activated at once. Different amounts of the genes are activated according to whether they are on the right or left, or the base or tip of the limb. This makes a gradient of signals that controls the growth. The blueprint for the end of the limb (the hand or foot) is laid down first, then the middle part is filled in.

http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~mrjc/regen.html