About This Lesson
Combat, cancer and accidents – all can cause devastating nerve injuries. Sometimes, the body heals on its own. “Your peripheral nerves, the ones in the arms and the face, have an inherent ability to regenerate, but only under ideal circumstances,” says University of Florida biomedical engineer Christine Schmidt. With support from the National Science Foundation, Schmidt and her team are working to restore nerve function when injuries are more complicated. Surgeons can sometimes move a nerve from one part of a patient’s body to another.
