Clifford Tabin, Ph.D.

As astronauts will be isolated from the full range of medical interventions available on earth, it will be paramount to harness the innate healing capacities of the human body. To this end, we are studying how, during the first two years of life, humans have the remarkable capacity to regenerate the tips of their digits after amputation. Our goal is to extend this capacity for regeneration throughout a person's lifetime. In complementary studies, we are looking at the process of limb formation in the embryo to gain further clues as to how the detailed anatomy of the limb can be self-assembled from an initial mass of undifferentiated cells.