Spring into Science - Lessons from the Liver: Novel Approaches for Regenerative Medicine

Description

Part Four of Whitehead Institute’s Spring into Science Series 

Kristin Knouse, a Fellow at Whitehead Institute, will be discussing the work in her laboratory aimed at understanding what endows the liver with a unique regenerative ability, with the ultimate goal of one day conferring this capacity to other organs in the setting of injury or disease. The inability of organs to renew themselves and the loss of differentiated cells underlies numerous diseases across organ systems—including heart attack, stroke, and neurodegeneration. However, the liver, in contrast to most organs, has a remarkable ability to regenerate itself after various forms of injury. While the liver’s regenerative ability has been appreciated for decades, it is still unclear why the liver can do this while other organs cannot.