LAUSR

Description Bridging knowledge gaps could enable regenerative therapy Nearly every human malady, be it injury, infection, chronic disease, or degenerative disease, damages tissues (1). Moreover, 45% of all deaths can be traced to inflammation- and fibrosis-related regenerative failures (1). Restoring health after damage requires the answer to a key question: How can human tissues be coaxed to regenerate? Identifying instructive cues that direct refractory tissues down a regenerative path remains a critical yet elusive goal. Nonetheless, approaches to target roadblocks that impede regeneration, including insufficient and/or functionally inadequate progenitor cells, fibrosis, and chronic inflammation, are continuing to progress from bench to bedside. Pivotal advances have been made to overcome these hurdles using cell therapy, in vivo reprogramming, synthetic biology, and antifibrotic and anti-inflammatory therapies, but many challenges remain and knowledge gaps must be addressed to make regeneration a mainstay of modern medicine (1).