Schmidtea happens: Re-establishing the planarian as a model for studying the mechanisms of regeneration.

Abstract

Understanding the remarkable regenerative abilities of freshwater planarians was a classic problem of developmental biology. These animals were widely studied until the late 1960s, when their use as experimental subjects declined precipitously after some infamous experiments on memory transfer. By the mid-1990s, only a handful of laboratories worldwide were investigating the mechanisms of planarian regeneration. Here, we provide the personal stories behind our work to reinvigorate studies of these fascinating animals. We recount many of the challenges that had to be overcome and reflect on some of the fortuitous events that helped launch the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea as a model organism for studying the molecular basis of regeneration.