Yep we were screwed as well by the lack of support for his research...

He reports in chapter seven of the same book of the observation of surgeon Cynthia Illingworth that a child of less than about 11 years old whose fingertip is severed beyond the outermost crease of the outmost joint will invariably regrow perfectly in around 3 months.

Looks like we humans already have some of this ability but it goes wrong around or just before puberty(my guess as to when).

It seems inextricably intertwined with cancer.
Becker suggests several experiments with regard to this at the end of chapter 12.

But it remains as to how to get funding for same.