James Monaghan

Professor James Monaghan, Biology Department Chair at Northeastern University College of Science: Does the axolotl salamander hold the key to human limb regeneration?  Professor Monaghan seems to think so!

Axolotls are the gold medallists when it comes to limb regeneration. Researchers from Northeastern University have discovered not only how an axolotl starts to regenerate a limb, but also how it knows just how much of the limb needs to be regenerated – whether it is just a finger or a whole arm. The research […]

As Wired’s Ana Lagos reported, James Monaghan’s lab at Northeastern University has been probing the axolotl’s freakish regenerative talents, hoping to uncover secrets that could revolutionize human medicine and maybe even one day become walking, talking Ships of Theseus.

Salamanders famously have the ability to regrow their limbs, but “one of the outstanding questions that has really plagued the field is how a salamander knows what to grow,” said James Monaghan, a Northeastern University biologist, to The Washington Post.

This paper gives us insight into how a limb knows to regenerate , something that has long been a mystery in the field,” says James Monaghan , a professor of biology at Northeastern University in Boston and senior author on the paper. 

Now, molecular biologist James Monaghan of Northeastern University has made a breakthrough that has allowed us to identify the driving force of regeneration—and maybe, one day, we will be able to give this power to humans.

“A longstanding question in the field has been, what are the cues that tell cells at the injury site to grow back just the hand, for example, or to grow back an entire arm,” said senior study author James Monaghan, a professor of biology and director of the Institute for Chemical Imaging of Living Systems […]

“This species is special,” says lead author James Monaghan, a biologist at Northeastern University, to Dino Grandoni at the Washington Post. The amphibians have “really become the champion of some extreme abilities that animals have.”

The complex mechanism by which it does this was revealed today by a research team coordinated by James Monaghan, a biologist at Northeastern University.

“This species is special,” lead researcher James Monaghan, a biologist at Northeastern University in Boston, told The Washington Post. They have “really become the champion of some extreme abilities that animals have.”