The human mind is great. Humans have developed and expanded tremendously over countless years in technology, resources, and information. Although the intellectual possibilities of humans are vast, almost unbounded, there is a physical limitation in most ordinary people that humans cannot overcome. Of course, humans have avoided this obstacle through medicine and advanced technology; humans have been able to repair damaged body parts, remove tumors, cure life-threatening diseases, etc., but to what extent can they fix these problems? Is it possible to restore lost limbs? Is it possible to heal scars? Is regeneration possible?Duke University researchers who have been investigating the regenerative DNA of animals have found and matched regeneration genes from a zebrafish latent within those of a human. However, what distinguishes the two is the sequence in which these genes are regulated in activation. The zebrafish have gene sequences in which regeneration becomes viable, which are called “tissue regeneration enhancer elements” or in short, “TREE,” whereas humans do not, making auto-regeneration is impossible. According to Kenneth D. Poss, Ph.D., Duke’s ultimate goal for its research is to “awaken the genes responsible for regeneration that we all carry within us." Over the past decade, researchers have found genes within other animals with regenerative DNA, but they finally found that a base pair such as the one in the zebrafish gene, leptin b, was activated subsequently after the fish was injured. Through more thorough research, scientists identified leptin b as the switch, or the enhancer element. Poss speculates that with the combination of the regeneration element and genome editing technology, it is possible for humans to regenerate. As proof of this enhancer element keeps building up, the more possible it becomes for humans to acquire regeneration.

<Daniel Hong Webb School of California 11Grade>