Michael Levin and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology for New Scientist magazine

Dr. Michael Levin is a professor and director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research.

Collected frog eggs float in a petri dish in the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research.

Frogs swim in tanks in Dr. Michael Levin's lab at the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research.

Dr. Michael Levin is a professor and director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research.

A frog with an extra working eye on its back (near the top of the left leg) swims in a tank in Dr. Michael Levin's lab at the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Researchers caused this extra eye to grow on the frog by taking cells that would become an eye from one frog egg and transplanting it onto cells that would become a frog's back in another egg. The donor egg developed two eyes normally, and the recipient egg developed two normal eyes and the third, all of which function as normal eyes would in a frog. This frog was born in August 2011 and continues to live as normal as of May 2014. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research.

Freshwater planaria worms float in petri dishes in Dr. Michael Levin's lab at the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. These planaria worms exhibit abnormalities found in worm colonies, including worms with multiple heads, and have been tracked in the lab since 2010. Some of the abnormalities have been achieved through drug treatments such as gap junction blocking, which blocks communication between cells during development. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research. Switzer collects eggs from adult frogs to be used in research.

Adult frogs live in the "frog system" in Dr. Michael Levin's lab at the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research.

Dr. Michael Levin is a professor and director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Levin's research focuses on the way that animal cells communicate with one another during embryonic development and cell and tissue regeneration. Levin's lab currently uses frogs and freshwater planaria worms for research.