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WASHINGTON: Researchers in Britain discovered a protein's molecular signal that apparently plays a key role in allowing newts, which are amphibians to re-grow severed limbs, a report in the journal Science says. The finding could provide insights in the field of regenerative medicine relating to mammals and humans, said Anoop Kumar of the University College London (UCL), the report's main author. Biologists have long been intrigued at how newts and other amphibians can re-grow severed limbs, never fully understanding the biological process. The protein called nAG, produced by nerve and skin cells, apparently plays a key role in stimulating blastema...

Thanks to Kalam, he can now fight, standing Jaya Menon Posted online: Saturday, May 05, 2007 Tamil Nadu bus conductor lost his legs in an accident, a letter to Kalam on experiment led to new lease of life Chennai, May 4: For P Thangamarimuthu (38), both of whose legs were amputated after an accident more than three years ago, it’s virtually a fresh lease of life. And the person who gave him new hope was none other than President A P J Abdul Kalam. The two had never met before. But Thangamarimuthu, formerly a conductor in a government transport bus,...

Close window Published online: 28 February 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070226-8 Electric switch could turn on limb regenerationTadpoles use a proton pump to direct tissue regrowth.Heidi Ledford Tadpoles: chop off their tails and they grow back. NHPA Tadpoles can achieve something that humans may only dream of: pull off a tadpole's thick tail or a tiny developing leg, and it'll grow right back — spinal cord, muscles, blood vessels and all. Now researchers have discovered the key regulator of the electrical signal that convinces Xenopus pollywogs to regenerate amputated tails. The results, reported this week in Development, give some researchers hope...

Profs. Susan Braunhut and Kenneth Marx have teamed up to pursue a “mind-blowing” innovation—to cause a limb to re-grow in an adult mammal.The UMass Lowell research group has joined groups from five other institutions and secured funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The UMass Lowell portion of the DARPA grant is $1.2 million for the first two years, with an anticipated continuation of $1.4 million for the next two years. The research groups expect that by working together they will gain a more complete understanding of the cellular and molecular processes that allow certain creatures, such as...

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) Doctors with Bravo Surgical Company known as the ''Cheaters of Death'' fight their own quiet battles every day against the horrifying wounds of war. ''These injuries we never see at home,'' said one of the surgeons, Dr. Matthew Camuso of Los Angeles. ''I mostly treated gunshot wounds and stabbing, but these injuries don't compare you just don't have people blown up back home.'' Dr. Michael Mazurek, an orthopedic surgeon and trauma specialist from Philadelphia, said he has seen ''some horrific injuries'' in the 90 days since coming to Iraq. ''The tremendous force of the IED can...