RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The Biology of Regenerative Medicine JF Science's STKE JO Sci. STKE FD American Association for the Advancement of Science SP pe30 OP pe30 DO 10.1126/stke.3892007pe30 VO 2007 IS 389 A1 Muneoka, Ken YR 2007 UL http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2007/389/pe30.abstract AB Review and commentary on Regeneration Biology and Medicine, by David L. Stocum. Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier, 2006, 448 pp., ISBN 13: 978-0-12-369371-6. The goal of regenerative medicine is to restore the structure and function of human body parts compromised by injury or disease. Regenerative medicine is a relatively new field that uses multiple approaches and has its roots largely in tissue engineering, tissue transplantation, and stem cell biology. It is becoming increasingly clear that advances in the areas of regeneration biology and developmental biology have the potential to transform regenerative medicine, and David Stocum has produced a textbook that attempts to pull everything together for the next generation of regeneration scientists. Regeneration Biology and Medicine is a terrific reference for anyone toying with the idea of moving into this field. The text offers an enormous breath of coverage of different systems currently under investigation, and Stocum provides a central theme that pits regenerative ability against fibrosis as a way to conceptually untangle the limited regenerative capacity of humans. In writing this textbook, Stocum has erected an umbrella large enough for scientists of diverse backgrounds to initiate conceptual cross-talk between those actively involved in the biology of regeneration and those targeting its clinical application.