Closely resembling plump grains of wild rice set in motion,
the three-banded panther worms swimming in
disposable containers in Whitehead Institute Member Peter Reddien’s
lab hardly seem like the next big thing in regeneration. And yet, these
little-studied organisms possess the ability to regenerate any part of their
bodies and are amenable to molecular studies in the lab, making them a valuable
addition to a field keen on understanding how mechanisms controlling
regeneration have evolved over millennia and how they might be activated in
humans.