PhD or Masters or Honours

Certain lizards regenerate their tails. Likewise, about 75 per cent of human liver can be removed and it can regenerate into a functional full size liver. Similarly, a high cholesterol diet stimulates the proliferation of cells within the liver and increases liver size. This is followed by liver shrinkage and fibrosis. Therefore the line between liver fibrosis and regeneration is narrow, and probably intimately linked. Here we use a short term and long term atherogenic diet strategy followed by partial liver resection. This project will investigate the effects of diets on the ability of the liver to regenerate itself. 

Supervisor: Prof. Jacob George, jacob.george@sydney.edu.au