A Tale of Tails: How Reptile Regeneration Could Help Humans

Dr. Thomas Lozito. Credit: Chris Shinn for USC Health Advancement Communications. “I’ve always been interested in science and in lizards. I got my first pet lizard when I was around 4 years old, and it was love at first sight,” says Thomas Lozito, Ph.D., who now studies the creatures as an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. During his childhood, Dr. Lozito turned his parents’ house into a “little zoo” of lizards and amphibians. He sneaked lizards into his dorm room as a college student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. While pursuing his Ph.D. in stem cell biology through a joint program between the National Institutes of Health and Cambridge University in England, he bred lizards and frogs and sold them to earn extra money. Dr. Lozito began studying lizards in the lab as a postdoctoral researcher working with Rocky Tuan, Ph.D., at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He established a lizard colony in Dr. Tuan’s lab, using animals from his personal collection, and studied how they regenerated cartilage—a tough, flexible tissue that gives structure to lizard tails, shark fins, and human noses and ears. Lizards easily regenerate cartilage, but humans struggle to do so, which can lead to health problems. For example, worn-down cartilage in joi...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Cool Creatures Profiles Regeneration Research Organisms Wound Healing Source Type: blogs