ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Inside the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine, the future of human medicine is slowly crawling across the glass of saltwater tanks.
Scientists here have been diving deep into the biology of the sea star commonly known as the starfish for years. To understand a feat of nature that has long eluded humanity: the ability to regrow lost limbs and repair damaged nerves.
“We do think of them as immortal,” said Veronica Hinman, Director of the Whitney Lab and a biology professor at UF. “They can just constantly regenerate and regenerate.”
While humans and starfish may look nothing alike, Hinman notes that the biological blueprint is surprisingly familiar.
“A lot of their genetics, their genome, their genes, their cells their cell types actually are somewhat related and similar to our own,” Hinman said.
The core of the Whitney Lab’s research focuses on cell division. When a sea star loses an arm, its body doesn’t just heal; it organizes a complex construction project and completes it within months. The starfish’s cells “know” exactly what to become, whether it is muscle tissue, a new limb, or even functional neurons.
Critically, the starfish manages this rapid cell growth without the errors that human biology has.
“Their cells know what they should be doing and what they shouldn’t be doing,” Hinman said. “That’s why they can grow an arm and why they don’t go crazy and start making tumors instead.”
In humans, uncontrolled cell division can often lead to tumors or cause cancer. By studying how starfish keep their regenerative cells “on track,” researchers hope to learn how to replicate that control in human stem cell therapies.
While Hinman admits that regrowing a human arm or leg is still several years away, this research can help with treating degenerative diseases and traumatic injuries.
“By identifying cells that you could turn into neurons, you could start to repair brain injuries or nervous tissue that has been lost through degenerative diseases,” said Hinman.
Hinman hopes the research can lead to humans being able to regrow a missing limb one day.
“Okay, now I can make those cells rather than just forming a scar,” Hinman said. “I can make those cells start dividing in a certain way, becoming a certain cell type, and grow out that little finger again.”
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