Elly M. Tanaka of Max Planck Institute has created a transgenic GFP axolotl, a half-foot long salamander that dwells in the Aztec canals of Mexico City. Although axolotls are endangered, they hold significant promise for human amputees. The salamander has the ability to regrow injured or missing parts of its body such as limbs, jaws, skin, organs, and parts of its brain and spinal cord through an embryo-like growth process. Scientists conclude that once they understand how a salamander can regrow a full limb as opposed to just a stump, they can introduce this biological technique to human amputees.

In order to monitor the axolotl’s limb regeneration process, the Max Planck scientists have inserted a green fluorescent protein into a mutant axolotl that lacks skin pigment. Since the salamander has clear skin, it is very easy to identify how the group of cells at the wound, the blastema, can multiply and form a new limb. Experts predict that humans with missing or damaged limbs will be able to regrow them within ten to twenty years.