Zebrafish

Environmental Estrogens Affect Early Developmental Activity in Zebrafish
06/22/2012 - 10:22

Chemicals in the environment that mimic estrogen can strongly influence the development of humans and other animals. New research to be presented at the 2012 International Zebrafish Development and Genetics Conference, held June 20-24 in Madison, Wisconsin, reveals that these substances may act even earlier than previously realized, at the very beginning stages of embryonic development.

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Versatility of Zebrafish Research Highlighted at International Conference
06/22/2012 - 10:18

It’s clear where the black-and-white striped zebrafish got its name, but less obvious at first glance is what zebrafish has to do with biomedical research. Amazingly, it has biological similarities to humans, which are making this small freshwater fish an increasingly popular model organism for studying vertebrate development, genetics, physiology, and mechanisms of disease.

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Biologists take a new approach to deciphering the roles of genes associated with autism
06/19/2012 - 13:24

Fish cannot display symptoms of autism, schizophrenia or other human brain disorders. However, a team of MIT biologists has shown that zebrafish can be a useful tool for studying the genes that contribute to such disorders.
Led by developmental biologist Hazel Sive, the researchers set out to explore a group of about two dozen genes known to be either missing or duplicated in about 1 percent of autistic patients. Most of the genes’ functions were unknown, but the MIT study revealed that nearly all of them produced brain abnormalities when deleted in zebrafish embryos.

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Live from the thymus: T-cells on the move
02/17/2012 - 14:13

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded for the first time in observing the maturation of immune cells in live zebrafish embryos. During their development, the immune cells migrate into and out of the thymus more than once. The zebrafish is thus an ideal animal model for studying the dynamic processes of immune cell development.

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Zebrafish regrow fins using multiple cell types, not identical stem cells
05/16/2011 - 23:00

What does it take to regenerate a limb? Biologists have long thought that organ regeneration in animals like zebrafish and salamanders involved stem cells that can generate any tissue in the body. But

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Surprising similarities between human and zebrafish tumors
10/06/2010 - 23:00

New finding that tumor cells in both species have too many chromosomes could help pinpoint genes that drive cancer development.

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