The Arnold Lab studies the regenerative flatworm planaria to understand how growth is regulated in an animal that can perpetually regrow all its tissues, which genes underlie the ability of an animal to reproduce asexually, and how regeneration proceeds in different contexts of tissue loss.
When we look at the tree of life, the ability of an organism to regenerate itself from a small piece—whole body regeneration, the most extreme form of regeneration—that is actually very widely distributed throughout the tree of life.
