Research by Prayag Murawala, Ph.D., in highly regenerative salamander could lead to new regenerative medicine therapies BAR HARBOR – With its amazing capacity to regenerate tissues and organs, its ability to reproduce in a laboratory environment and the ease with which its genes can be manipulated, the Mexican salamander, or axolotl, holds enormous promise as a model for the study of regenerative medicine. But unlike research on traditional models like the mouse, fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans), which has progressed into the genetic age, the study of the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) has been held back by a lack of scientific tools to work with it, including sophisticated genomic resources as well as experimental and genetic tools. That is now changing due to research at the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor and elsewhere.