Looking Beyond Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering: What if Lost and Damaged Tissues and Organs Could Be Regenerated Simply by Taking a Drug?
MDI Biological President Kevin S. Strange, Ph.D., discusses the laboratory's pioneering approach to regenerative medicine in an editorial that originally appeared in the online publication, Regenerative Medicine Network.
Continue ReadingBringing Nerve Regeneration from Tank to Bedside: An Interview With Sandra Rieger, Ph.D.
Sandra Rieger, Ph.D, assistant professor at the MDI Biological Laboratory, discusses how her laboratory is utilizing zebrafish as a model to study wound healing mechanisms and nerve regeneration in patients with peripheral neuropathy in an interview that originally appeared in the online publication, Regenerative Medicine Network.
Continue ReadingA Biomedical Rationale for Having Strong Social Safety Nets
MDI Biological Laboratory Associate Professor James A. Coffman, Ph.D., discusses how susceptibility to disease is determined epigenetically -- that is, by environmental influences that affect the developmental and physiological regulation of gene activity.
Continue ReadingZebrafish May Hold the Answer to Why Early-Life Stress Can Make You Sick When You’re an Adult
In her "Catching Health" blog, freelance health and wellness writer Diane Atwood discusses research by MDI Biological Laboratory scientist James A. Coffman, Ph.D., on how exposure to stress early in life can lead to adult disease.
Continue ReadingNew Clue from Fish About Healing Spinal Cord Injuries
In this guest post, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, discusses the research of Kenneth D. Poss, Ph.D., a 2016 visiting scientist at the MDI Biological Laboratory, on the regeneration of the spinal cord after injury in zebrafish.
Continue ReadingThe Patient Perspective: How Patient Interaction Helps Laboratory Research
The importance of interaction between patients and researchers is the subject this discussion by MDI Biological Laboratory assistant professor, Sandra Rieger, Ph.D., who is studying chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy using the zebrafish as a research model.
Continue ReadingCool Videos: Regenerating Nerve Fibers
If you enjoy action movies, you can probably think of a superhero—maybe Wolverine?—who can lose a limb in battle, yet grow it right back and keep on going. But could regenerating a lost limb ever happen in real life? In this guest post, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, discusses the how scientists including Sandra Rieger, Ph.D., of the MDI Biological Laboratory are striving to understand how other organisms do this.
Continue ReadingHow Does Chronic Stress Early in Life Contribute to Aging?
MDI Biological Laboratory associate professor James A. Coffman, Ph.D., delivered a summary of research being conducted in his laboratory on the effect of stress on health at a recent Work-in-Progress presentation.
Continue ReadingCOBRE Program Garners Accolades from the National Institutes of Health
The role of the MDI Biological Laboratory’s COBRE program in building successful scientific careers for junior researchers and enabling major new research endeavors was recently commended by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) in a request for funding to the U.S. Congress.
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