Her “Willerth Lab” at UVic involves engineering tissue that can be transplanted into people to treat diseases of the nervous system such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, or to repair spinal cord damage. Willerth’s goal is to genetically modify human cells to become muscle, blood, heart or nerve cells – a future for regenerative medicine and personalized medicine. The day could come, for instance, when someone needing a liver transplant could have a new liver created from their own cells, notes Willerth.