By Sigrid Alvarez and Emma Conway

Sigrid Alvarez is a PhD student in the Verchere lab at the CFRI. When she’s not curing diabetes in mice, she likes to read, play volleyball and bake delicious goodies. Emma Conway is an MSc student in the Lam lab at the BCCRC. When she’s not being nerdy, she likes to play soccer or squash, camp and sail.

HOWLETT: NOVEL WOLVERINE PROTEIN CONTRIBUTES TO RAPID REGENERATION AND HEIGHTENED CELLULAR REPLICATION

JOURNAL OF SUPERHERO MUTATIONAL SCIENCE (February 2013). Vol 13 Issue 2. pp297-302 pdf download Wolverine, a mutant from the X-men team, possesses super healing abilities. Wolverine’s healing abilities have striking similarities to that seen in axolotl, an amphibian with the capacity to regenerate amputated limbs. In this study we sought to determine the mechanisms by which Wolverine regenerates. We identified a novel protein, dubbed Howlett, that is nearly identical to the Amblox protein in axolotl which is known to be responsible for the amphibian’s limb regeneration. siRNA knockdown of the howlett and amblox genes demonstrated decreased replication in Wolverine and…