Regeneration is one of the most tantalizing areas of biological research. How are some animals able to regrow body parts following injury? Why can't humans do the same thing? Can scientists learn the secrets that imbue certain animals with this amazing ability? Could that knowledge someday be used to develop new therapies to help people heal? Four professors in the Department of Biology — Randal Voss, Jeramiah Smith, Ann Morris, and Ashley Seifert — are undertaking the basic scientific research needed to begin to answer these and other questions. Each of them approaches the problem from a different angle, focusing on different aspects of regeneration, and using different vertebrate models. Ashley Seifert studies the African spiny mouse and the research is focused on skin regeneration. He started studying these animals about five years ago, shifting from a salamander model. "What’s phenomenal is that they’re able to regenerate complex tissue structures," he said. "They can regenerate all of the components of their skin including hair follicles, sebaceous glands and the underlying dermis, the structural component which gives the skin strength. And then, in the ears, amazingly, they can regenerate cartilage. Any orthopedic surgeon will tell you what a huge advance it would be if we could figure out how to regenerate cartilage in a mammal." Seifert's research is taking him and postdoctoral scholar Tom Gawriluk to Kenya for the summer, where they will divide their time between trapping spiny mice in the wild and working with colleagues at the University of Nairobi and the University of Georgia to examine how immune tradeoffs can affect regenerative ability. Photography by: Brian Connors Manke