Abstract
PEOPLE WHO lose a limb to war, accident, or disease can choose from a remarkable array of prosthetic replacements, including legs specialized for cyclists and sprinters or arms with hands that can grasp and manipulate playing cards and paring knives. Bioengineers continue to refine prosthetic limbs, but they still can’t replicate the entire constellation of capabilities provided by flesh and blood. So a few determined scientists are pursuing a different solution: They are seeking the recipe for regrowing a missing limb. The ability to assemble a biological limb cell by cell in a lab requires so much detailed knowledge and such advanced technical capabilities that it may be a century off, according to biologist Michael Levin, who directs the Tufts Center for Regenerative & Developmental Biology at Tufts University. “But asking the host organism to build a limb is a much more achievable goal,” he says. After all, the body already knows how to ...
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