|
One of the most commonly studied laboratory animals is the zebrafish — a tiny fish with transparent embryos, or larvae, whose internal organs can be easily seen as they develop. Because they are genetically similar to humans and have complex organs, zebrafish can serve as a model for human diseases such as cancer, liver disease and heart disease. However, one limitation of zebrafish studies is that it takes several minutes to visually examine each larva. |
This has kept researchers from using the fish in experiments that require a large number of animals, such as testing the effects of many different drugs. With the aim of speeding up the process and enabling large-scale studies, engineers at MIT have developed a new technique that can analyze larvae in seconds. Zebrafish take only seven days to fully develop, and most of their organs are formed by the third day of development, which makes zebrafish studies faster than those with mice or other slow-growing mammals. Best of all, the transparency of the larvae lets researchers directly see the effects of drugs or genetic mutations. Although humans and zebrafish may not appear to be closely related, many of the zebrafish's organs and much of its biochemistry are similar to those of humans. For example, zebrafish and humans share the same liver enzymes, so the fish are useful for testing drugs that might cause liver damage. They also make good subjects for studies of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other diseases, says Yanik.
(Source: MIT) |
.jpg "Don't Burn the Cat"){kind=icon}
