If we make skin and muscle cells when we heal cuts and heal/generate bones after breaking them, why wouldn’t we be able to grow a finger if one is cut off?
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What’s really important are HOX genes. They are the blueprints that lay out the basic body structure, like drawing a stick figure before filling in the finer details.
But they aren’t really active after development finishes, iirc. If we could find a way to reactivate them in a directed way, we could tell the body to grow a new finger.
Some animals in nature have this ability, like axolotls, (they can regrow entire limbs!) which may be a side effect of them being in a not-fully-developed state.
Read more about HOX genes to better understand how the body tells “what” to grow “where”.
update: found an old but cool video about how researchers learned about HOX genes.
[Hox genes](https://youtu.be/voQQ1dhCqZg)
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