About the Lab

The World Health Organization’s estimates that there are over 9 million Americans living with a loss, malformation, or impairment of a limb, and as the prevalence of diabetes continues to rise, that number is projected to double by 2050. Present treatments for limb amputation include replantation of amputated parts, revision amputations to accommodate prosthesis fitting, transferring tissue from other locations (e.g. toe-to-thumb transfer), or hand transplantation. The primary approaches in regenerative medicine include the use of native or bioengineered scaffolds, stem cell therapy, or a combination of these two approaches. These treatments are not without risks and the restoration of normal function is rarely realized. Faced with these major issues, we take an alternative approach using regenerative biology strategies, in which we utilize the mouse digit to investigate endogenous mammalian regeneration to inform the development of targeted therapies for inducing multi-tissue regenerative responses at otherwise non-regenerative amputation wounds.