MUNEOKA LAB — REGENERATIVE BIOLOGY DIVISION
Lab Notebook #39
Subject: Mus musculus, digit amputation model P3
Protocol: Sequential two-signal treatment (FGF2 → BMP2)
Status: TISSUE SAMPLES SCARRED — AWAITING TREATMENT
Select scarred tissue to apply FGF2. Release to trigger BMP2 differentiation.
TREATMENT PROGRESS
0 / 5 tissues regenerated
FGF2 STANDBY
BMP2 STANDBY
BONE — Distal Phalanx
ARTICULAR CARTILAGE — Joint Surface
TENDON — Flexor Digitorum
LIGAMENT — Collateral Complex
NAIL ORGAN — Eponychium & Matrix
CONCLUSION
Mammals did not lose the capacity for regeneration.
They evolved a switch to turn it off.
This two-signal sequential treatment — FGF2 to recruit progenitors, BMP2 to direct differentiation — does not introduce regeneration. It re-enables a programme that was always there, silenced beneath layers of fibrotic default. The scar is not a failure of healing. It is a choice the body makes. And choices, it turns out, can be reversed.
— Muneoka et al., Nature Communications, April 2026