Lots of 6-year-olds are fans of axolotls, the pink salamanders native to Mexico that have surged in popularity in connection with the “Minecraft” video game.
But Marianne Cullen of Springfield is perhaps the only 6-year-old helping support axolotl medical research in the United States, after she made a $1,000 donation to Harvard University this month.
“I knew they were trying to help the axolotls, that’s why I raised my money,” Marianne said during a special visit recently to the Harvard Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology lab.
Like many kids, Marianne first learned about axolotls at school. There was a lot of talk on the kindergarten playground about how the salamanders are “so cute,” she said.
As axolotls grow in popularity, more kids — and by extension, their parents — are learning about the animals’ remarkable ability to regrow limbs and organs lost to injury. One day, biological secrets gleaned from axolotl research could help military veterans and diabetes amputees, scientists say.
Harvard is one of the few places in the world that studies axolotl regeneration, and, although Marianne had no idea, her donation arrived after the lab had seen five federal grants terminated amid Trump administration cuts to the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, said director Jessica Whited.
“It came at a particularly poignant time,” Whited said last week in her lab, where Marianne was getting to explore rows of equipment and even meet some axolotls.
The tour was the culmination of a summer that Marianne dedicated to learning more about axolotls and how scientists are studying the endangered salamanders to unlock the key to human limb regeneration.
“They can do things humans can’t do, and I hope that one day we can save the axolotls,” said Marianne, who wants to be a scientist or a NICU doctor when she grows up.
Marianne invited about 30 family members and friends to a PowerPoint party in Springfield this summer, where she raised the money she donated to Harvard. People also donated to a Venmo fund-raiser on Facebook, and Marianne contributed $80 of her own piggybank money, said her mother, Kat Demetrion.
Marianne says there’s another reason behind her fascination with axolotls. It has to do with her sister, Emmaline, who’s just a year old.
Doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital have treated Emmaline for immune and allergy response conditions, and Marianne wonders if there could be a connection between axolotl regeneration and medical therapies for infants who suffer from autoimmune diseases.
“Emmaline was having scans of her organs; there were some heart enlargement issues, and Marianne made the connection that maybe axolotl research like this would be able to help,” Demetrion, 41, said.
Unfortunately, Marianne says she doesn’t get to see her baby sister that much while she receives treatment at Boston Children’s and several other hospitals.
“I am so proud of Marianne,” her mom said. “Raising money for axolotls has helped her to process her scared and anxious feelings about her sister’s health.”
Demetrion, who works as a special education teacher at her daughter’s school in Springfield, said she saw firsthand when the axolotl craze took hold among young students this past academic year. Her colleagues, in turn, started incorporating the animals into classroom lessons.
“We are learning about axolotls from children,” Demetrion said, with a laugh, as Marianne examined one of the pink creatures in its tank at the lab.
Whited said that human babies injured during birth who need a shoulder surgery called a brachial plexus repair could benefit from scientific breakthroughs gained from axolotl limb regeneration research.
While the details are still being worked out, it’s possible Marianne’s donation could go directly to such a project at Harvard, linking axolotl findings to infant medical treatment.
“That would be a fitting use of the money,” Whited said.
At Harvard last week, Marianne and her family were lunch guests of Whited and a team of researchers at the Annenberg dining hall. Like most first-graders, Marianne enjoyed chicken strips and chocolate milk. But while in the lab, she also managed to hold her own in conversations with the scientists.
Marianne looked closely at two axolotls in a small tank, one pink and one dark grey. She studied their bellies, looking for a round spot indicating the animal’s sex. But since it was daytime, Marianne said, the mostly nocturnal animals appeared to be resting.
“But at nighttime they like to party,” she said, eliciting laughs from all the adults around her.
Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.