Gut microbiota impacts nearly every aspect of health, but researching it can be tricky due to differences between humans and commonly used model organisms, as well as interindividual variability in humans. A relatively new model, zebrafish have become a gold-standard model for biomedical research, and are especially used to study host-microbe interactions. In this article we will discuss zebrafish’s contribution to recent microbiota research and the features that make them particularly well-suited for studying the host-microbe interactions.

Zebrafish have an astonishing capacity for organ and appendage regrowth and could unlock the possibilities of human tissue regeneration.

The zebrafish has become an increasingly prevalent model: but in this series we are going to dive deeper, discussing their unique benefits.

The zebrafish has become an increasingly prevalent model: but in this series we are going to dive deeper, discussing their unique benefits.

Summary A recent publication by Crouzier et al. emphasized the utility of zebrafish as a model for investigating rare diseases – enabling better understanding of

Beyond research into vaccines and traditional therapeutics, the medical community is exploring other ways of helping to prevent, and reduce, symptoms of COVID-19. One promising supplement is a common probiotic. In this article we will discuss the studies that have been conducted, their findings, and answer the question: who could benefit from taking probiotics?

Tauopathies are a type of neurodegenerative disease which get their name from the accumulation of Tau protein that occurs in all of them; these diseases include Alzhiemer’s disease (AD), Pick’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and post-encephalitic parkinsonism, and more. Although there has been a concerted effort to better understand and treat Tau protein aggregation, all tau-targeting therapeutics developed so far have failed. This lack of discovery in the field suggests a better approach is needed to understand Tau protein. In a recent paper, Giong, Subramanian, Yu & Lee (2021) make the case for non-rodent models as a way forwards.

This article reviews the history of the zebrafish, and discusses the scenarios when other fish species are advantageous.

Mutations in the STXBP1 gene are implicated in childhood epilepsies and several neurodevelopmental disorders, however, nearly half of the STXBP1 variants recorded in the ClinVar database are Variants of Unknown Significance (VUS). In a recent publication, members of the InVivo Biosystems team discussed their work creating humanized C. elegans that expressed STXBP1 in order to classify variants as benign or pathogenic.

The Undiagnosed Diseases Network UND is a nationwide network that is working to understand and diagnose rare and undiagnosed human diseases. The UND coordinates between research and clinical experts, using the latest genetic and genomic technologies to create a more personalized medicine model.

Summary COVID-19 has broadly impacted biomedical research, in this article we give an overview of its effect on labs and discuss how this can shine

The Undiagnosed Diseases Network brings together experts across the USA, combining clinical care and research to find diagnoses for undiagnosed patients. Zebrafish are extremely valuable disease models in this research, as they reduce the cost and speed up the process of identifying therapeutic targets. In this blog we highlight one rare disease whose mechanism was successfully identified using zebrafish.

A common saying in science is that, “good science and good animal welfare go hand in hand.” In this article we provide an overview of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement: guiding principles for the humane use of animals in research), look specifically at the UK’s well-documented implementation of them, and discuss how new techniques and technologies can continue to improve animal welfare.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, debilitating disease that accounts for 60-80% of all dementia cases, however, it remains untreatable. In this blog, we provide an overview of many commonly used organisms for modeling AD, and compare their advantages and limitations.

According to the Epilepsy Foundation 1 in 26 people in the U.S.A will develop epilepsy at some point in their life, however, epilepsy is a very diverse condition which makes researching it especially challenging. In this blog, we will discuss the model organisms commonly used in epilepsy research, and how their characteristics act as advantages and limitations when modeling epilepsy.

Model organisms are essential to experimental research, allowing researchers and scientists to address a variety of questions. While no model is perfect, some models are more suitable for investigating specific questions than others. In this blog, we provide an overview of many commonly used model organisms, and compare their advantages and limitations.