More than twelve years ago, Dr. Ellen Heber-Katz at the Wistar Institute found that a particular breed of mouse used in lab experiments (the Murphy Roth Large or MRL) could regenerate and heal a hole punched in its ear.

Normally reserved for salamanders, newts, and other lower order animals, regeneration in mammals is one of the Holy Grails of medicine.

Over the last decade, Heber-Katz and others have shown that the MRL could not only repair a hole punched in an ear, it could repair heart damage as well.

Furthermore, this ability has been induced in other mice (in a limited fashion) through manipulation of a single gene.

Top image via Tikus Lab Mice.
Via Singularity Hub.