When we grow, our metabolic state actually changes from utilizing specific pathways that are focused on making materials. We switch to a different pathway that allows us to make energy more efficiently. And for something like a human being, when does this transition happen? I don't know the exact transition point, but i reso whether it's qrit three wek s, or 18 years or 50 years,. Well, we're still growing, as the ten agers lried, so i guess this is gradually said, ching, seaching.
Biological organisms are pretty good at healing themselves, but their abilities fall short in crucial ways. Planaria can be cut into pieces, and each piece will regrow into an entire organism; but for most advanced animals, loss of a limb becomes a permanent condition. But why should that necessarily be so, if an organism’s genome knows what it’s supposed to look like? Lea Goentoro’s lab has recently produced surprising results that indicate that it’s easier than you might think to coax animals into regenerating limbs.
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Lea Goentoro received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She is currently Professor of Biology at Caltech. Her research involves how biological systems function and develop across a variety of scales, including perception, organization, and self-repair.
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