DoD Eyes Limb Regeneration

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced the creation of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). According to the DoD, AFIRM will "harness stem cell research and technology&to reconstruct new skin, muscles, and tendons, and even ears, noses, and fingers." The government is budgeting $250 million in public and private money for the project's first five years, wrote Slate's William Saletan.

According to Saletan, the military has been working on regrowing lost body parts using extracellular matrices for three years. Scientists in labs have grown blood vessels, livers, bladders, breast implants, and meat. This year they announced the production of beating, disembodied rat hearts. At a recent press conference, Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker explained that our bodies systematically generate liver cells and bone marrow and that this ability can be redirected through "the right kind of stimulation." Schoomaker points out that salamanders can regenerate whole limbs. He asks: "Why can't a mammal do the same thing?"