Regeneration is in the eye of the golden apple snail — literally. A study in the journal Nature Communications looks at the golden apple snail's regenerative properties, specifically in its eyes. Like humans, these snails have camera-type eyes, and understanding how they regenerate could lead to advanced medical treatments for humans with eye injuries.
It might seem odd that we humans have similar eyes to snails, but this ocular connection is driving Alice Accorsi, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Davis, to study possible eye regeneration.
“Apple snails are an extraordinary organism,” Accorsi said in a press release. “They provide a unique opportunity to study regeneration of complex sensory organs. Before this, we were missing a system for studying full eye regeneration.”
Along with regeneration, for this study, Accorsi and her team also worked on ways to edit the apple snail’s genome. This will ...
