Two women in lab coats smiling and working together with a pipette in a laboratory setting.
Graduate student Iris Juanico (right) studies the science of regeneration in the lab of Celina Juliano (left). She studies how simple organisms like Hydra can rebuild—and what that might mean for human health. (Katrina Huynh / UC davis)

This CBS Graduate Student Studies How Bodies Regrow

Iris Juanico’s Curiosity Fuels Research in Regeneration

  • by Liana Wait

Iris Juanico was drawn to science by her innate curiosity.

“I never stop asking questions,” said Juanico, with a laugh. “I was drawn to science as a child because it involves asking a lot of questions.”

This same curiosity continued to motivate Juanico throughout graduate school. As a student in the Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (BMCDB) Graduate Group, she’s spent the last five years digging into the details of tissue regeneration Hydra—small, jellyfish-like animals with remarkable regenerative abilities.

“The goal of my research is to find out how injury leads to regeneration,” said Juanico. “If humans have a spinal cord injury or a limb amputation, we can't recover from it, but a Hydra can regrow its entire body. There are fundamental things that are similar between all animals, so understanding regeneration in Hydra could eventually enable better regeneration in humans.”

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