May 14 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Seminar held in person only.
Dr. Jessica Whited
Associate Professor, Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
Harvard University
“Systemic controls on axolotl limb regeneration”
Understanding how injury provokes cells to mount the correct response to optimize regeneration is critical for future therapeutics stimulating human limb regeneration. Comparative approaches across species promise to bridge the gap between “super-regenerators” and humans, but we first must tease out the principles operating in these super-regenerative species. Axolotls grow a blastema, a transient structure formed at the injury site, to coalesce activated progenitor cells to create new tissues during limb regeneration. We are studying the mechanisms whereby blastema cells are specified and the extent to which they act systemically, versus locally, in this process. I will highlight our recent work on how adrenergic signaling systemically primes cells toward regeneration, while also promoting local blastema cell specification at the injury site. I will also share our ongoing work investigating the role of pituitary-derived prolactin in limb regeneration.