Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado, 45

Position » Associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy, joined the U. in 2001.

Honors » Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Sciences.

Research interests » Explores the mysterious capacity of regeneration observed in freshwater flatworms known as planaria. These creatures can regenerate their entire quarter-inch bodies from a tiny sliver. Sanchez Alvarado hopes to learn about human cells' capacity for regeneration by studying planaria at the molecular level. His team has identified a gene that appears to direct stem cells to rebuild the worm's missing parts. They hope planaria can be used to study human disease processes that cannot be studied in other animal models.