Re-armed: An evolutionary and genomic approach to understanding limb regeneration

 Dr. Dahn's laboratory focuses on understanding the genetic circuitry regulating vertebrate limb development, evolution, and regeneration. They employ a comparative approach exploiting natural variation to understand mechanism by studying organisms representing all three major groups of limbed vertebrates: the cartilaginous fishes (i.e. sharks and skates), the ray-finned fishes (i.e. gar and zebrafish), and tetrapods (i.e. chickens and humans). They apply interdisciplinary techniques, ranging from classical embryology to functional genomics, to gain insight into which biological mechanisms are ancestral and shared by all vertebrates, and which have evolved in specific lineages. Their comparative approach has yielded novel insight into the fundamental mechanics of limb regeneration, an ability that has been lost in humans. The ongoing major focus of the lab will be to translate these findings into the design of targeted therapies that restore regenerative capacity in the limb.