Overview

• Researchers confirmed golden apple snails can fully regenerate camera-like eyes in under 28 days with neural integration completing by three months.
• The eye regrowth follows a four-stage sequence of wound healing, cell mass formation, lens and retina emergence, and component maturation.
• Investigators used CRISPR/Cas9 to disable PAX6 and other key genes and establish mutant snail lines for functional analysis.
• Both snails and humans rely on the PAX6-driven developmental program for camera-style eye formation, highlighting an evolutionarily conserved mechanism.
• Ongoing work is mapping stage-specific gene expression to pinpoint molecular switches that could lay groundwork for future human eye repair therapies.